The following are finalists who are being considered to become the Tribune’s new weekly columnist based on reader feedback. Please send your thoughts about the columnists to Managing Editor Sarah Stultz by email at sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com or by mail at 808 W. Front St. in Albert Lea. Please clarify in your comments whether your remarks are intended to be printed as a letter to the editor or simply read by the Editorial Board. Comments must be received by Saturday.

 

Guest Column by Casey Comstock

 

Happy Valentine’s Day! I am a romantic at heart, and I love the idea of a special holiday dedicated to love. I love pink and hearts and especially the chocolate.

But Valentine’s Day can be a sad and lonely day, too. Some people are going through a separation or divorce. For them, Valentine’s Day might be a painful reminder of broken dreams. Other people may not have found a special someone yet. They might be spending this Valentine’s Day alone. For other people, this might be the first Valentine’s Day spent alone due to the death of a loved one.

I wish a special happy Valentine’s Day to the lonely and the grieving on this day. Take heart! Even in the midst of trials and tribulations, you can celebrate this day of love. Celebrate by loving yourself today. Take yourself out to eat and treat yourself to your favorite dish. Buy yourself a bouquet of flowers to brighten up this gloomy winter weather. Indulge in a hot bath. You deserve to celebrate today.

As for me, I have been married for 17 years now. (This is my second marriage, and I had three sons when I entered this marriage.) My husband and I have raised to adulthood my three sons and are over halfway done with our last son. We have weathered life’s storms together: health problems, financial problems, big and little disagreements. Our marriage even managed to survive having three teenage boys in the house at the same time. (Don’t ask me how we kept them all fed — it was only by the grace of God. They were pretty good boys, but I recall a near fist fight over the last piece of pizza once. No fist fights over the last piece of my meatloaf, though. Go figure.)

Anyway, for me and my husband, Valentine’s Day is just like every other day. Like most married folks, we will get up and go to work. We will make sure our son gets to school. We will run errands and pay bills — all the boring day-to day things that marriage is full of.

But somewhere in the day, we will look at each other. We will look at our son, and we will smile at each other and know that every hardship that we weathered was better because we weathered the storm together. We will know that all the boring day-to-day tasks were worth it because that is what built our family.  (And then I will take a closer look at the man I married. He is still a good-looking man. Maybe there will be a little romance tonight after all.)

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Make today and every day a special day!

Casey Comstock is a writer for the Wells Mirror, where she writes about current events.