Happy Birthday My Love

[:::: Authors Note ::::]

The following is a letter that I physically wrote out for my wife on her recent birthday. This isn't a made-up story this time, it's real, it's my life and word for word is what is on paper sitting proudly on her bedside table. She told me of all the gifts that she has gotten over the years, that this was the single most thoughtful gift that she has ever received.

I have chosen not to put this through an editing process, as I wanted all the mistakes, errors, and everything that made up this love letter on paper to my wife to be reflected in this short tale when I translated it to online.

[:::: Happy Birthday My Love ::::]

Once Upon a Time...

Because all good stories that make your heart sore start with 'Once Upon a Time'. There was this boy. He was proud, brash and single. He had a lot of friends, but no one he called that special someone. The boy was focused when he put his mind to something and one day decided that he wanted a girlfriend.

But the boy didn't want just any girlfriend. He wanted the right girlfriend. He wanted to find the one that he wanted to marry. She had to be beautiful and strong, laugh at his silly jokes and always have his back. Of course, there were other attributes, but these three were what he desired the most.

The boy searched high and low, talked with different friends, and approached girls he thought might suit him, but none of them did. The boy became somewhat despondent and worried that he might not find the girl he was looking for or he would be unhappy because he might have to settle for someone that didn't suit him.

Then one day, a friend invited the boy to come out to lunch with a group of people and there she was. The girl was beautiful. Just looking at her made his pulse race, and his heart beat just that little bit faster. From the first time that they locked eyes, the boy was smitten.

In the coming months, the boy and the girl started dating and never once did the boy wonder if she was the one he was looking for, he just knew. But then disaster struck.

The boy did some silly things and lost his job. The girl could have broken up with the boy over his mistakes, but she didn't; she stood by him, held out her hand and helped him stand back up. At this moment, the boy knew he was truly in love. The girl saw the boy's strengths but also his flaws and he marvelled at how she still looked at him with adoration in her eyes even with his flaws.

The boy's heart backflipped when he asked her to marry him and she said yes. When he saw her walk down the isle towards him, he could hardly breathe she was so beautiful.

In their early years, they had their struggles, learning to be a couple, communicating and getting past their differences. But the boy's heart still beat faster when she gave him that look.

When they started a family, the boy was so proud of the girl. The effort and time she put in, that even though she struggled as a new mother, sleep deprived, the girl still gave everything she had to the boy and their child.

The boy still holds the memory of that father's day when the girl showed the boy he was going to be a father for a second time. Again, the girl gave the boy that look and the boy's heart raced at how beautiful she was as they planned how to be parents with two children.

As a family, the boy and the girl fought through life together. They struggled through finance, through tough times where they found it hard to talk to each other, sometimes even a lack of intimacy. But they also laughed through good times, enjoying each other's company where they laughed at everything hand in hand together. Through the highs and the lows, the boy felt like the luckiest man in the world to have the girl by his side.

Their journey together has been fraught with danger, sometimes with hidden traps. Now and then one of them has been caught in a trap, and stumbled, however, the boy always remembers that look, the one of love that the girl always gives him. It strengthens him, makes him want to be better, to love the girl more as they are there for each other.

Today, the boy and the girl are celebrating the girl's birthday. He whispers how much he loves her throughout the day, brushes her hand and kisses her often constantly trying to catch her attention across the room even as she is talking with others.

The boy and the girl don't have a perfect life. But they have each other, and more than anyone or anything else in his life, the boy is blessed because of the girl that gave him a certain look one day that made his life richer than he could ever imagine.

Happy birthday my love.