Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! It is that time of year again when we take time out to express our love to loved ones, family and friends. Forget the commercialization of the day, do take time out to tell someone you care about how much they mean to you because we never know what tomorrow holds.

I have never celebrated Valentine's Day and my H does not believe in it. I do love teddy bears and on occasion when I see cute Valentine's Day teddy bears for sale, I will purchase them to add to my collection of teddy bears - they are seated on sofas and arm chairs around the house. They give a cozy feel to the place.

My three adorable Valentine teddy bears!

Although I personally do not make a big deal of this day, it is a day that is celebrated by many in this United States. The earliest reminder of this day comes in the form of our supermarket paper bags. I am always impressed by my local supermarket's effort to mark events with their paper bags : ). It is kind of neat that they make the effort albeit it is to their advantage because they do have an impressive display of chocolates, flowers and teddy bears to tempt us!

Have a happy and healthy Valentine's Day!

This year, Valentine's Day takes on a new meaning with the tragic death of Beverly Eckert, a widow of a 9/11 victim who was on the Continental Flight 3407 that crashed into a house yesterday. Although it is not certain that ice on the plane was the cause of the crash, analysis of the "black box" and crew conversations indicated that the crew noticed ice on the windshield and leading edges of the wings as they approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The anti-icing system was activated and the plane's landing gear was engaged one minute before the crash. It was probably on its last five minutes of flight. Beverly was on her way to Buffalo - her husband's hometown to present a scholarship she set up after her husband Sean Rooney, died in the 9/11 attack and to celebrate his 58th birthday with family and friends.

According to news reports, Beverly was a prominent spokeswoman for national anti-terrorism reform. Her group was instrumental in compelling the creation of the 9/11 commission and in persuading lawmakers to pass sweeping reforms of this United States' intelligence apparatus to guard against future attacks.

On 9/11, her husband, who worked for a risk management company called her from the 105th floor of Tower Two to tell her that he was trapped. In an interview in 2006, she revealed "they tried to live the rest of their lives in the few seconds they had left together" before she heard the tower began to collapse. Beverly recently donated a tape recording of their last conversation in which they recapped their life together to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero.

On this Valentine's Day, Beverly and Sean are reunited. May they find eternal peace and love.

Do take time to tell those you love how you feel about them not just on this Valentine's Day but every now and then because we do not know what tomorrow brings and it may be too late to warm their hearts and fill their spirit with your love.

I had two pleasant surprises today. This morning, I found an e-Valentine card from one of my best girlfriends, Mau. Thanks, Mau - very sweet of you! And this afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised when my H told me that he had made a reservation for dinner this evening at our favorite cafe in Century City. Since we have never gone out for dinner on Valentine's Day, I declare this evening's dinner to be in honor of Beverly's and Sean's love for each other and to celebrate the spirit of love!