Finding Freedom, Day 21: Oh That's So Romantic

After I badgered her relentlessly, my dear friend offered a question/topic for my birthday blog. "What is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?" she asked. My initial response was, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

But then I remembered a boy who adored me once and whom I adored. I think about him often and I wonder what might have happened if I hadn't been so afraid of him or of boys in general. I didn't know what to do with him. I met him through one of my close high school friends when I was 15. He was her younger brother and he was so cute.

As a tall girl, finding a boy who was taller than me was important. He could comfortably wrap his arm around my shoulder and he did, often. But what he did for me was, by far, the most romantic gesture made my any man in my life.

AJ bought me roses. He didn't buy them once. He bought them all the time. He regularly gave me roses-- mostly peach roses. They were my favorite. I always knew that different color roses held different meanings but I don't ever remember knowing what peach roses meant. Today, I looked it up.

Peach roses possess many connotations. They are demure and modest so they symbolize a certain purity. They represent genuine sincerity, gratefulness, thanks, and, most of all, innocence. The peach rose was the perfect gift from him to me.  And, oh so romantic.

AJ passed away in 2011. I had only run into him one time since high school but the moment I heard the news, I missed him and the first thing that came to mind were all of those roses.