A valentine's story... (fwd)

["Erik Walthinsen (Omega)" <omega@sequent.com>]

All things considered, bad luck (see end of fwd) is the last thing I need
right now.  Besides, it's a decent story/moral.  :-)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 12:33:42 -0800
From: "Dona Richmond (dona)"
To: "Core Software Organization (core_org)"
Subject: A valentine's story...



This is a nice story for this time of year....


	I thought this was a great story to share with you all !!!


	John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army
uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand
Central Station.  He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face
he didn't, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun thirteen
months before in a Florida library...

	Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the
	words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The
soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.

	In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name,
	Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address.
She lived in New York City.  He wrote her a letter introducing himself and
inviting her to correspond.  The next day he was shipped overseas for service
in World War II.  During the next year and one month the two grew to know
each other through the mail.  Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile
heart.  A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she
refused.  She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she
looked like.  When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they
scheduled their first meeting
	- 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York.

	"You'll recognize me," she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on
	my lapel."

	So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he
	loved, but whose face he'd never seen.

	I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:
	A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim.  Her
	blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were
	blue as flowers.  Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her
	pale green suit she was like springtime come alive.  I started toward
	her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.
	As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips.  "Going my
	way, sailor?" she murmured.

	Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw
	Hollis Maynell.  She was standing almost directly behind the girl.  A
	woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat..
	She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled
	shoes.  The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away.  I felt
	as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her,
and
	yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly
	companioned me and upheld my own.

	And there she stood.  Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible,
	her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle.  I did not hesitate.  My
	fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was
	to identify me to her.  This would not be love, but it would be
	something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a
	friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.

	I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the
woman,
	even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my
	disappointment.

	"I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell.  I am
so
	glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?"

	The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile.  "I don't know what
	this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady in the green
	suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat.
	And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and
tell
	you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the
	street. She said it was some kind of test!"

	It's not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell's wisdom.
The
	true  nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.

	"Tell me whom you love," Houssaye wrote, "And I will tell you who you
	are."

	****************************************************************
	Send this to 3 people....  You will have good luck for an entire day.
	Send this to 8 people .... You will have good luck for all of next
week.
	Send this to 11 or more people......You will know your true love and
	be happy for a long, long time.
	Send this to 20 or more people ......  You and your true love are
	going to be happily married for ever after.
	Send this to nobody......  You will have bad luck for at least 5
years.

---------- End forwarded message ----------


     Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect
        __
       /  \                SEUL: Simple End-User Linux -
      |    | M E G A            Creating a Linux distribution
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