I don’t like Valentine’s Day. I, like many others, look at February 14th as a time when greeting card companies, flower delivery services, and the makers of gigantic teddy bears get to put their hands into my pocket and squeeze me for every dollar they can.

Why do I need Valentine’s Day when I can tell my wife I love her and do sweet things for her throughout the year? But this perspective has begun to change…

My wife and I were walking into the grocery store when we saw an old man, I’ll call him Virgil, walking out with a bouquet of red roses. He was wearing a Veteran of Foreign Wars hat and was gripping a metal rail as he slowly limped out of the store’s entrance. In the winter of his life it was hard for him to move with any celerity.

Virgil had no groceries. His sole mission today was to pick up red roses for his Valentine.

My heart chords strummed. I thought about the many years this man spent loving his wife; he still loves her. I pointed Virgil out to my wife and she smiled. We watched him trundle out to his grey Cadillac—the car was in pristine condition—and drive out of the parking lot and out of our lives. Or so we thought.

After getting the groceries we needed, my wife and I were driving home when we passed the graveyard that’s next to our house. It’s a large, open air cemetery with healthy green grass—something that’s difficult to maintain in the New Mexico winter—with neat rows of grey headstones.

I pass this cemetery everyday, but something caught my eye on the drive back. I noticed the pristine grey Cadillac in the cemetery parking lot and it was at this moment I knew Virgil wasn’t going back home to wish his wife a Happy Valentine’s Day; rather, he was coming here. I looked out into the sea of headstones and saw Virgil hunched over the grave of his Valentine.

There was a sudden pang of love and affection I felt for him and the pure goodness of the human spirit he represented. My initial reaction was one of sadness, but this quickly morphed into happiness. I was happy to know there was this kind of love and devotion in our world. I want this in my marriage.

It gave me hope that my wife and I will continue to love one another in the same way Virgil and his wife loved each other throughout their years. Maybe one day my wife will come to place roses on my grave or I will place them on hers.

You don’t need gigantic teddy bears or boxes of chocolate to show your love, but it’s nice to let your spouse know how much you care about them. And there are many other ways to do that.

I love my wife with all my heart, and I thank Virgil for reminding me what Valentine’s Day is all about.