Valentine Day's at 83 and a half

After Eleanor had slowly made her way down the flight of stairs, taking breaks along the way to catch her breath, she had finally reached the apartment mailboxes on the ground floor.

"I really should not have picked an apartment on the third floor", she mumbled to herself as she wiped drops of sweat from her forehead with her wrinkly hand.

Once again the elevator was not working. But Eleanor was a woman of routine and would not let this stand in her way. The mailbox had to be checked. Every day at 17.00 ‘o clock, no exceptions. She grabbed a key from the pocket of her vest and made an attempt to stick it into the lock of her mailbox. As usual the tremor in her hand made this challenging. But on the 4th try she finally got it and she opened the mail box to see if anything was inside. Still recovering from her journey downstairs she was relieved to see that it wasn't empty today. She grabbed the few pieces of mail and inspected each item with squinted eyes, having forgotten to take her reading glasses with her.

Today's yield - as far as she could make it out - consisted of a utilities bill, some flyer for an Italian restaurant offering a couples discount for today and a big, red envelope. Eleanor held the envelope in front of her face to study it more closely. She could barely make out that it was addressed to her, as everything was hand-written in small and squiggly letters.

"Hmm... I wonder who this is from".

While she carefully studied the envelope, she didn’t notice someone had come out of the elevator - which apparently was working again - and who now stood right next to hear. The person tapped Eleanor gently on the shoulder causing her to let out a small yelp.

"Oh sorry, Mrs. White, I didn't mean to scare you there...".

When she looked to the side she saw it was her next-door neighbor, Alan. Alan was somewhere in his 30s and had a busy job downtown, if she'd remembered correctly he was a lawyer. Even though the man was rarely home, he was always kind to Eleanor whenever they encountered each other in the hallway, elevator or at the mailboxes.

"Oh hello Alan, no no don’t be silly. That's what you get when you switch you're hearing aid off," Eleanor said as she quickly flicked it on with her finger.

It was only now she noticed Alan was holding a big bouquet of roses in his right hand. "Who is the lucky lady?", she said.

Alan looked at the roses for a moment and then looked back at Eleanor with a big grin on his face. “I am going on a date tonight. Thought I would surprise her with some nice roses. After all, it is Valentines Day."

Eleanor chuckled.

”I think she will love them, Alan”.

"I sure hope so Mrs. White. Do you and Mr. Wilson have anything planned tonight?".

Eleanor's face turned more serious.

"I would have liked that, but Mr. Wilson is still recovering in the hospital from his hip surgery. But I am going to visit him tomorrow morning".

Alan scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit guilty.

"Sorry to hear that Mrs. White, I didn't know that. Please give him my regards. Too bad you can't celebrate your first Valentines day together".

Eleanor smiled kindly, trying not show her sadness about it to Alan.

"Thank you dear, we just have to do that next year then. You be best on your way now, shouldn’t make a lady wait".

Alan grinned again. “Thanks. Have a nice evening Mrs. White!", he said as headed for the exit of the building.

"You too, enjoy yourselves".

After seeing Alan head out, Eleanor turned to her mailbox again. She locked it with her key, still holding the red envelope and other items in the other hand. She then slowly made her way to the elevator and pushed the button to call it down.

As she waited for the elevator to arrive she thought about how wonderful the past year had been with Albus, or 'Mr. Wilson’ as Alan called him. She never expected to meet someone again after her husband had died 9 years ago, but life still had some surprises up its sleeve for a woman of 83 and a half years old. Eleanor had met Albus at the local community center, where a friend of her had introduced them each other at one of the monthly bingo nights. They had quickly come to like each other and could talk for hours about all kinds of things, from photography and nature (their mutual interest) to the more mundane such as the news and the weather. After dating for more than half a year, Eleanor had asked Albus to come and move in with him. It was such a nice feeling to be able to wake up next to someone again, to have breakfast together or go for a walk, do groceries. Life had lost some of its color after Eleanor’s husband had died, but Albus had brought it back again.

Eleanor was pulled back in the here and now by the sound of the elevator doors opening. It really was working again (thank god). She stepped into the elevator and rode it to the third floor where she got out.

After she entered her apartment she went over to the dining table to put the mail on it, as she usually did. Except for the red envelope. She took that with her to her comfy black leather chair where she would spend most of her days, doing things like solving sudokus, reading books about nature and photography and knitting all kinds of things for her grandchildren.

She slowly sat down in the chair, the leather squeaking in the process, and grabbed her reading glasses from the antique side table next to the chair. After she had carefully placed the glasses on her nose she looked at the handwriting on the envelope again. Even though it was squiggly and barely discernible, it looked familiar to her somehow. But her memory was a bit rusty these days, so she decided to just open the envelope and find out. She carefully tore open the top of the envelope with her trembling index finger. When she peeked inside she saw there was a big greeting card in there. She removed the card from the envelope and held it in her hands.

On the front of the card there was an illustration of a golden heart with a text around it saying "A big Valentine kiss from me to you".

Eleanor had never ever received a Valentine card before. At least not from her late husband, he wasn’t that big of a romantic. She opened the card and started reading the contents, written in the same squiggly handwriting as the address on the envelope.

As she started to read the words a gentle smile appeared on her face. The more she read the more her eyes started to tear up.

"Oh you silly man...." she mumbled.

After reading the card she held it closely to her chest, hugging it.

She then put it on her lap and reached over to the side table where her phone was. She got one of those fancy smartphones from one of her grandchildren, who had enthusiastically explained all the things that you could do with it. Eleanor didn’t understand it at all, but at least she still knew how to call someone with it.

She held the phone against her ear and wiped away a tear from her eye as she waited for the person on the other side to pick up and reply.

After a few seconds she heard Albus’s soft-spoken voice say the words “Hello darling.”

“Hello dear” Eleanor said. “I just got your card, it is lovely. Thank you so much.”.

“Glad to hear that. So… what’s your answer?” Albus nervously asked.

Eleanor chuckled.

“Yes, of course you silly man. Nothing would make me happier than to become Mrs. Wilson.”