Most people think that Valentine's Day is only for lovers or young children. I beg to differ with you. It's also a time of remembering the loved ones in your life. My name is Hank Adams and Valentine's day has been my favorite day of the year for as long as I can remember.

I remember way back when I was just a kid, maybe kindergarten through the sixth grade. We would all take a tissue box or a large shoe box and in art class we would decorate it all up. All the kids in the class would give every other kid a card that would say, 'Be my Valentine' or 'Be mine.' For the guys it might say 'Friends forever, ' or 'Be my Pal.'

I remember going to the five and dime store with my mom to pick up my cards. For the girls in my class I wanted to make sure it said the right thing. On the back of every card I would sign my name, Henry Adams.

A few of the years we made up our own cards using construction paper. I always made sure that Mary Lou got my best card. Sometimes I would write 'I Love You' on the back of hers.

Here I am in the hospital almost eighty years later thinking about my first Valentine's cards. It was so many years ago, but it seems like just yesterday when I put a card in Mary Lou's tissue box.

She was my girlfriend in those first few years of school. She lived next door to me and we walked to school together till her family moved away. I missed her but again I was only nine years old when she left.

Throughout the next ten years I saw her from time to time. I always got a little queasiness in my stomach when I saw her. I guess it was because she was the first girl I had ever kissed.

Life went on and I joined the Marines. I spent three years fighting in the Korean conflict in the early 1950's. Hell, we had good men dying and they wouldn't even call it a war. After returning to the states I joined the National Guard. I retired from the Guard with thirty years of service.

I worked for the National Guard, in the maintenance division. We kept up the jeeps and other vehicles for the weekend warriors; that's what we call our part-time Guardsmen. I won't take anything away from them, they were good men and many were sent overseas to fight. Others helped when we had emergencies here at home. They were a damn good group of men and deserved to be called servicemen and soldiers.

Anyway, when I got back to my small town in central Ohio I thought I'd look up some of my old friends. No one had seen Mary Lou for years. They said she hadn't gone to our five-year reunion. I hadn't gone because I wasn't there at the time.

Something I should mention here is that I went to a public school and Mary Lou went to an all-girls school after she moved. It was a couple of years after our class graduated that the schools combined, so we shared the same reunions.

Life went on and I dated a few girls. We had sex, but it wasn't as open as it is today. I wasn't a kiss and tell kind of guy but I had my share of women.

When it was time for our ten-year reunion I decided to go. I hadn't been there five minutes when Mary Lou walked in. I got that queasy feeling as I walked up to her. She saw me and came up to me and gave me a hug.

I began asking questions. "Where have you been? I've been looking for you since I came back from Korea. I looked in all the local phone books and couldn't find you. How are you? How have you been?"

She smiled at me.

"Henry, slow down, we can talk about our past later. It's just so good to see you." She hugged me again.

We spent the whole evening together. Old classmates thought we might be together. I didn't know most of the girls from her school but she introduced me as an old friend.

She told me she just went by Mary now. We danced and talked about when we were kids. We laughed a lot. We made a date to get together the following Saturday.

Mary told me that the reason I couldn't find her in the phone book is because she had gotten married four years before and her last name was Arndt. She had attended college and moved to Columbus and become a school teacher. She had divorced her husband about three months before, after she'd found out he was cheating on her.

I asked her where she lived now and it turned out she had landed a position at the local school and had just moved back to town. She would be starting her new position at the start of the new semester.

We started dating. I saw her every chance I could. She wouldn't talk about her divorce, except to say that it really hurt. To be honest here, I wanted to hunt the bastard down and beat the shit out of him for hurting my Mary. That's how I thought of her.

It was about two months after we started dating that we made love for the first time. It was like no other sexual experience that I have ever felt. I knew it was because I loved Mary and every act of sex I did, I did for her. I didn't worry about what I wanted, only what made her feel good.

After our first time together she cried and told me she never knew it could be so good. We both knew that it had to be the connection we had. On Thanksgiving I invited her to my parents' home for dinner. It was there at the dinner table that I proposed to her.

She said yes and we wanted to set a special day for the wedding. A date we could remember and celebrate. Christmas was too soon and too hectic. New Years was more of a party day then a romance for lovers. So we chose Valentine's Day. February 14.

It was a day for lovers and one that we decided to always celebrate together. That was fifty-eight years ago. Our life together was wonderful. We had five children, seventeen grandchildren and also have seven great-grandchildren.

Everyone said we were like two peas in a pod. Some said we were joined at the hip. We never liked to be apart. The only time we were ever separated was when I had to go away a couple of weeks each year with the National Guard.

Our kids and grandkids have always said that they have never seen a more compatible couple. If I started a sentence, Mary could finish it. We had our disagreements but we never stayed mad at each other for long.

Mary rarely raised her voice. If the kids did something wrong she would always say, "Wait till your dad gets home." I hated that; it made me the bad guy. We often argued about her setting the punishment. I didn't like spanking my kids so we started just taking things away from them.

It wasn't like today where they have i-Pods, MP3 players, cell phones and all that other stuff they have nowadays. We had a TV but only got three stations. Our phone was on a party line we shared with two other neighbors.

We took away their bikes, or told them they couldn't talk on the phone. Maybe gave them extra chores. We even told them they couldn't go outside. Today you have to push your kids out to get a little fresh air. All in all my kids were great and still are.

I give Mary the credit for the upbringing of the kids. My daughters and granddaughters can actually cook food; none of that frozen phony stuff. My sons have work ethics. They don't ask for handouts and all earn a good living. We did our best to send them to trade schools and college, wherever they wanted to go.

I am proud of every one of them. They have always been there for us and us for them. That's what real families are all about.

Every Valentine's Day Mary and I would go out of town and get a room for the night. We would see a movie or play, have a good dinner and a night of fantastic, kid-free sex.

We never missed a celebration. Even the year before last, when Mary had found out about her illness she still wanted to celebrate. I know it might be hard to believe but up till last year, we still made love on Valentine's day. It might not have been as good or long as years past but we both made the effort.

They got those pills out now that kind of helps out. I've been using them for a while now.

One story I want to tell you about was one day shortly after we got married. Mary and I went out of town to dinner. I saw her look over at a guy and a young women sitting in a booth. Mary looked very nervous.

"What is it Mary? Do you know those people?" I asked.

She took a deep sigh and said, "That's Wayne, my ex-husband. That girl he's with is the one I caught him cheating with. Her name is Helen. Rumor is she's had sex with so many men she probably doesn't remember all of them. I told Wayne but he never believed me. He thinks she's a saint, the idiot."

I was surprised; Mary didn't often talk like that.

"Do you still have feelings for him, Mary?"

"Oh, no! I love you, Hank. He doesn't hold a candle to you. It's just that ... that I always wanted to get even with him but never had any idea what to do."

I wanted to do something for my Mary, something that would make her happy. Now you have to understand that I was still in the military and in great shape. This Wayne character, Mary told me, was a car salesman. I knew I could take him.

Something else you need to know is Mary had been divorced from him for a year or so at this point. That meant that he and his girlfriend had been together for about a year and a half at least.