With Valentine's Day rapidly coming up on us, we often focus our attention on our wife/husband or boyfriend/girlfriend.  As a husband, I will get my wife flowers and chocolates.  Perhaps a jewelry purchase is in my near future. And rightfully so.  Our significant others deserve to know how much we love and appreciate them.  This is truly a special day for couples.  That is why I also like to remember those special couples that have been influential in my life; people that have helped shape me into the good person that I hope I am today.  Today, I find myself thinking of my maternal grandparents, Fred and Carroll VanderKooi.

My grandparents met while my grandfather was in Korea during the "Forgotten War".  He was in an infantry squad with my grandmother's brother.  Without the luxury of emails or cell phones, serving in such conditions was extremely isolated and lonely. Through a very fortunate chain of events, my grandfather began to write letters to my grandmother.  For over a year and a half this correspondence continued.  This is hard to understand for most people now, as the mail took several weeks to be delivered.  But, somehow they endured, and finally met face to face.

It wasn't long before they were married and started their family.  They moved to a small farm in rural Hinton, Iowa and my grandfather began his longtime career as a semi-truck driver.  Life wasn't always easy for my grandparents, but they were always there for each other.  My grandparents were very reserved with displays of  affection in front of others, but somehow it was always apparent how much they loved each other.

Grandpa Fred would come home from work visibly exhausted.  He would always have on a t-shirt and jeans in the summer and added a flannel shirt in the winter.  I remember him smelling like the field corn he had been hauling all day. Although tired, he always had the energy to ask my grandmother about her day. My Grandma Carroll, who also worked very hard in their home, made sure there was always a wonderful dinner and a kind word for her family to enjoy.

My grandfather once told me, jokingly, that the secret to a happy marriage is the man always needs to have the last word...and those words better be "yes dear".  I am forever thankful to my grandparents for showing me how to be a good husband and father.  Their bond never faded.  Not even on the day that my grandmother passed away.  My grandfather doesn't know that I saw this, but while my grandma was lying in her hospital bed my grandpa leaned over her and gave her a kiss and told her that he loved her.  It was the only time I had ever seen my Grandpa Fred cry.

 (BTW...My grandpa is wearing a wig in this photo)