First Love...

Off to do some Valentine shopping today... will post some of my great etsy gift finds next week, but little eyes like to check out my blog, so those will have to wait.  Handsome Hubby and I don't do big Valentine celebrating, our anniversary is right around the corner and so we usually save it up... but it did get me thinking today about great love stories, and about one you might enjoy.

My great Aunt Orangie (yep, one in the same) was quite a woman... smart, attractive, opinionated, stylish... really just a wonderful role model for a niece who basically worshiped her. She was a first grade teacher and  didn't marry until she was 29, but when she did, she married well and promptly retired from teaching.  My great Uncle Garland (funny names, aren't they?) was a gem.  He worked his way up in THE PHONE COMPANY (back when there was only ONE phone company) from a grunt to upper management... and was happily settled into retirement by the time I can remember.

They had a beautiful antique filled house in Nashville, and a farm in the country.  She was in the garden club, women's circle at church, Bridge Club... a real social butterfly and community leader.  He sang in the church choir, gardened, and did the dishes EVERY SINGLE TIME she cooked one of her famous southern meals, most often using vegetables she had canned from his garden.  They never had children, she told me because she was scared she was too old by the time they married... which I find funny since so many women these days are having babies until their early 50's.  If anyone should have had kids, it was these two...  but lucky for us, my brother and I became their "grandchildren" and spent many, many hours enjoying their company, hanging out on the farm, just soaking in their greatness.

When she died, I think he couldn't stand being in that house without her.  I will never forget being with him when he walked into the funeral home and saw her for the first time... he stopped cold at the door and exclaimed, "Oh Honey!  You look so beautiful."   OMIGOSH... just writing that makes me tear up all over again.  Although he was mentally sharp as a tack, he sold the house and nearly everything in it and moved into assisted living.   One year later he joined her... think he really couldn't stand to be away from her any longer.

One of the things she left to me (besides a wealth of life lessons) was this sweet little silverplate set...

It has been used for every special occasion and holiday since.... just love it and the history it represents.  When I received it I found this tucked inside...

Don't you love that? Every time I pull this set out, it makes me smile.  This past Christmas Handsome Hubby was doing the dishes (lucky girl, got my very own Uncle Garland) and he noticed the markings on one of the knives.

Not sure how well you can read this, but it says 1847 Rogers Bros.   Of course there are many, many patterns so we started comparing and here is our match...

Can you guess what the name of this pattern might be?

FIRST LOVE.  Just makes me swoon...