Love Letters from My Valentine

Being how it is Valentines Day I thought I would tell you about my Valentine....

I met my husband when I was barely fifteen years old at a boy-girl camp in Mt Pleasant, Texas called Camp Langston. I went as a camper for two weeks. He was a wrangler working there for the summer. Even thou I was young, I felt a little frustrated to find out that I was the same age as the counselors that stayed in each cabin. That meant I had to be in at night the same time as the younger kids there instead of at the bonfires or group gatherings with the teenagers at night. I made the best of it and stayed busy with camp activity's. I loved horses and one of the things at Camp Langston was trail rides everyday. James was in charge of the horses and saddling them and such for the campers. You usually had to take the next horse in line but James was really nice and let me ride up at the front of the line with him. I sort of had a school girl crush on him before I left when the two weeks was up. If I saw him go to the mess hall, I'd pick that time to go eat also. I went on as many trail rides as I could. I even got permission from Mrs Langston right at the end of my stay to stay up and get to visit with the camp teenagers. I remember carving a heart with mine and James initials on the wall in my cabin. I stayed in the smallest cabin there that only had two bunk beds and me and another girl were the only ones staying in it during that two week stay. Anyway, back to my story....
The day I left  camp, I conveniently left a small note thanking James for being so nice and letting me ride horses with him at the front of the line, and I placed it in the mail room in his box. I really didn't think I would ever hear from him again, but I was wrong. Several months had gone by and one day to my surprize I received a letter in the mail. It was from James. It was really sort and some what formal. Started addressed as Hello, ended with James. That was the beginning of many more letters and cards. They soon changed to Dear Betty, love ya James. As time went by I went on with my teenage years, dating, proms, party's, a steady boyfriend, but James and I stayed in touch and continued writing. I even traveled a lot and moved around the states during the end of high school and after graduation. He was always calling me a gypsy. Those letters grew longer in writing and we found ourself's becoming very good friends and really ....falling in love. We talked on the phone from time to time and James drove three different times to come see me. We wrote letters to each other for five years and only seeing each other those three times. We were married two weeks after he came to see me that third time and we have been married thirty seven years this March.
To this day I still have every letter and card James has ever written me, then and now! When our children were growing up they attended Camp Langston also. They didn't meet their husbands there but had I not been there that summer so many years ago, I wouldn't have never met James. God had a plan and that teenager attending camp so long ago was part of his plan. James working there that summer was part of his plan. Our children were part of his plan. Those love letter's were part of his plan.

To my husband, James, who will Always be My Valentine!

I Love you more ....

Betty