Warm Hearts

Romance lives here.

Winter is loosening its grip and slowly receding in Northern Alberta.

Slowly.

Maybe it’s being driven off by the people . . .

Mari and Lee met over twenty years ago and have been married for just past eighteen.

A good marriage.

A marriage that has withstood some hefty bumps and setbacks.

And thrived.

Once again, it's time for the annual Library Conference in beautiful Jasper, Alberta.

Mari’s presence is required.

Lee’s is not.

So, for the days of the conference, they have been apart.

But really only separated by distance.

Let me explain . . .

Last night, Mari received a phone call from her sweetheart.

They chatted.

Then he asked her if she was wearing her warm, comfy, red pajamas.

I should mention, here, that warm, flannel sleepwear is a necessity in the frozen north.

Just FYI.

Back to my story . . .

It was an odd question.

“No. I’m wearing my warm, new, black and white jammies,” she said.

“Well, I wanted you to wear the red ones,” he said.

“Umm . . . I don’t have any red ones.”

“Yes, you do. I saw them in your suitcase.”

Puzzled, Mari went to said case and sorted through. Could Lee have possibly meant the orange pajamas?

She took them out and allowed them to unfold.

A note dropped out.

An I-love-you-even-when-you’re-far-away sort of note.

Suddenly the separation and distance didn’t matter.

They would always be together.

How do people survive in this cold, rather forbidding six-months-of-winter-per-year climate?

Warm hearts.