Heart Hope by Olga

Lynn with 2 of her rescuers, Ryan and Sue Over the last few years I have posted this on or around Valentines Day. It is the ninth anniversary of Lynn's life changing  cardiac arrest. So here goes once again: Valentines Day over the years has had different meanings. In elementary school it was how many Valentine cards you received from your classmates. In high school it was did you have a date for the special evening. As a young married it was where you go for a romantic dinner. However on Valentines Day six years ago it took on an entirely different meaning for my family. Let me give you a little bit of history. In 2007 life was good. My 27 year old daughter, Lynn had just gotten married, returned from her honeymoon and started a new job. My oldest daughter was pregnant with her second baby and everyone was happy, healthy and employed. While having lunch with a colleague on February 14 th I was surprised to see my husband dashing into the restaurant when he w...

Did you know that Valentines Day did not originate to celebrate romantic love, but instead because of an early Christian? It has simply evolved into a day for giving cards, chocolates, jewelry etc probably due mostly to the retail industry.  If you research Saint Valentine, you will most likely find that according to history there were actually several people who were given that title. The one I found most inspiring was a kind hearted Roman priest who aided young Christians being persecuted by Claudius II and was imprisoned for his faith. While in custody, he converted 46 members of a guard’s family to Christianity. Upon discovering this, Claudius sentenced him to death. Today St Valentine is known as the patron of love, young people and happy marriage. So as you can see, Valentine’s Day was started to honor a man who loved people enough to sacrifice his life for them. This sounds like true love to me. It also sounds a lot like the love that God has for us. God the Father love...

Valentine"s Day is many things to different people. To those in love, it is a sweet day to be able to express the feeling to that special person in your life. To those who long to be married, but have no prospects, it is a day of loneliness. To young children it may be counting how many friends you have by the number of Valentines you received. To my family it has a special and unique meaning.  We like to express it as Happy Heart Day or Happy Life Day. Both are quite fitting because of what happened four short years ago on Valentine’s Day.  The day started out quite ordinary. I was at work and all was well. My 27 year old daughter, Lynn had just returned from her honeymoon and was planning a romantic dinner for her husband of 11 days.  While a lunch that day with a friend and co-worker my husband rushed into the restaurant where we were eating and told me that Lynn had suffered a seizure at her new job. We hurried to the Vail Medical Center where she had been taken; i...