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Throw Away the Key

I remember…
…what a sleepy-head you were in the morning.  I was almost always up first and made coffee for us.

Frederick Saunders (1807 – 1902)
My heart to you is given:
Oh, do give yours to me;
We’ll lock them up together,
And throw away the key.

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How You Felt Hurt Me

I remember…
… when I was separated but not yet divorced and it bothered you to be seen with me because of it.  I regret it being an embarrassment to you, but how you felt hurt me.

Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning Sept 18, 1845
…that you should care at all for me has been a matter of unaffected wonder to me from the first hour until now – and I cannot help the pain I feel sometimes, in thinking that it would have been better for you if you never had known me…

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My Heart is Full

I remember…
…laughing and talking as we walked arm in arm under an umbrella down a cobblestone street in Holland on a snowy late afternoon. 

Ludwig van Beethoven July 6, 1806
My heart is full of many things to say to you – Ah! — there are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all — cheer up — remain my true, only treasure, my all as I am yours

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A Kiss of Desire

I remember…
…slow dancing in public for the first time and everyone being envious of how much in love we were.

A White Rose” by John Boyle O-Reilly 1844 – 1890
The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
Oh, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud,
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

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Devotedly and Lovingly

I remember…
…how we liked to sit across the table when we ate out so we could look at each other as we talked.

Randolph S. Churchill to future wife Jeanette August 1873
I can assure you dearest Jeannette you have not been out of my thoughts hardly for one minute since I left you Monday. I have written to my father everything, how much I love you, how much I long and pray, and how much I would sacrifice if it were necessary to be married to you and to live ever after with you. …My first and only love… Believe me ever to be yours devotedly and lovingly.

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Nothing Has the Power

I remember…
…how we hugged, kissed and exchanged “I love you’s” whenever we parted.

Voltaire to a Lover (date unknown)
If you love me, reassure yourself; and call all your strength and presence of mind to your aid… and be assured that the menace of the greatest tortures will not prevent me… No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives..

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I Give My Life

I remember…
…how you would sneak little notes into my bags when I traveled so I would find them unexpectedly while I was away.

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett March 16, 1846
How will
the love my heart
is full of for you,
let me be silent?
…my dear dearest beloved.
I give my life,
my soul into your hand – 
it is yours, ever yours…

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My Most Consistent Prayer

I remember…
…going to the flea market on weekends and almost always coming home with a  treasure of some kind. 

From A” Year From Wednesday© by James Browning
I will think of you constantly through each day and faithfully write you like we promised.  I will pray for your safety and good health but my most consistent prayer will be that we make deed and truth out of our promise.  Know I am filled with life and the first new hope I have felt in a long while…. And it’s all your fault!

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Perfect Love Beyond Expression

I remember…
…how beautiful you were dressed in all white the day of our wedding.  Happiness beamed from your face.

Woodrow Wilson to Edith Galt just before they married
You have the greatest soul, the noblest nature, the sweetest, most loving heart I have ever known, and my love, my reverence, my admiration for you, you have increased in one evening as I should have thought only a lifetime of intimate, loving association could have increased them.  You are more wonderful and lovely in my eyes than you ever were before; and my pride and joy and gratitude that you should love me with such a perfect love are beyond all expression, except in some great poem which I cannot write.

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Ten Thousand Soft Desires

I remember…
..how well the surface of our bodies matched and fit together when we embraced.

Sir Richard Steele to his soon to be wife – August 1707
I lay down last night with your image in my thoughts, and have awak’d this morning in the same contemplation.  The pleasing transport with which I’m delighted, has a sweetness in it attended with a train of ten thousand soft desires, anxieties, and cares.  …Dear Molly I am tenderly, passionately, faithfully thine,