Kristi's birthday gift isn't much of a surprise for her.
I started to date her as just a friend because I didn't want to get involved with anyone before I left on a mission as a nineteen year old. We were just friends that could talk. I finally took her out a month before I left. I knew I loved her but two years was a long time and there were no commitments. For two years we wrote weekly and continued to chat about what was going on in our lives.
For her birthday that first year, I had arranged to have delivered to her one red rose. Well, I have kept it up for 48 years, adding a rose for each year that I have loved her. Some years it was sort of tough. Not much extra money for roses, so really some years there were other flowers, many years tulips. Sometimes I had to just sneak in to a garden and get the right number in the dark. Lately, it has been a problem finding a big enough vase to get forty plus flower in. Fortunately, here in Zambia these roses are relatively inexpensive and very small, so they fit in a water pitcher quite nicely.
The problem I see now is that I can only fail. When alzheimer's sets in or I turn the calendar and all the florists are closed, I will be in big trouble. I have told my boys, don't start this. It will only set you up to be in trouble some day.
In the mean time, Kristi is very patient, wondering when the flowers will show up. I am just happy I don't have to include a card anymore. She knows who sent them.
