Heart Warming

Romance lives here.

October is fast disappearing here in Northern Alberta.

And we who live here know that means winter could arrive at any moment.

Any moment.

Months of cold, snow and ice.

But we survive it.

Want to know our secret?

Maybe this story will help...

Mari and Lee met almost thirty years ago and have been married for just past twenty-six.

A good marriage.

A marriage that has withstood some hefty bumps and setbacks.

And thrived.

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

Mari’s presence was required.

Lee’s was not.

So, for the days of the conference, they were apart.

But really only separated by distance.

Let me explain . . .

On the first 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.

Because they were always together.

Sooo...back to my question.

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

Warm hearts.