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Saint Valentine’s Day
This story happened on St. Valentine’s Day. In the office there was a working atmosphere – employees typed something on computers, discussed problems of the day and wired bank payments. Suddenly, a girl appeared with a huge bouquet of flowers. In spite of the busy winter day, everyone brightened up, the office filled up with a smell of spring. To the surprise of the bank staff, she came to me and gave this bouquet with a card saying “From Edward with Love”. “Is he here?” I asked, completely amazed. “No, we got the order from Seattle, by Internet,” answered the girl.
At that time, I knew Edward only by e-mails; I had not even heard his voice. It was nice to have a friend from Seattle, a sister-city of Tashkent. We wrote each other about our countries, about our favorite books and writers, discussed many topics about various subjects. I think that sometimes a person can be more open with a stranger, thinking that a stranger will not blame, or in somewhat disapprove of that person. That is why so many people in the world sit at the computer at the end of the working day and talk on-line to other people from distant places. The Internet has made everyone a neighbor and made the impossible possible.
We got to know more about each other, and, by learning more, fell in love. As if two parts of one, two souls found each other among all the billions of people on earth, almost at the other end of the world (in fact, the time difference between Tashkent and Seattle is 12 hours). There was also music, music that helped me to understand his life, his heart. At my birthday, I received a present from him with his favorite music. Still, I remember words of one of them by Garth Brooks:
There is nothing that I wouldn’t do,
Go to the end of the world for you,
To make you happy,
Make your dreams come true,
To make you feel my love.
He fulfilled what the song promised. He came to Tashkent in April, and we saw each other for the first time. The week he spent in Tashkent was full of adventures. We visited the beautiful ancient city Samarkand, were at the Swan Lake ballet and many other interesting places.
There were some problems, too. When he first arrived, without knowing the local language, he did not come with all other passengers
to the place where I was waiting for him, but followed transit passengers on the way to … India. Fortunately, he finally came out of the security gate of the airport to meet me. But his luggage was lost and was found only at the end of the trip. Then, the hotel he reserved from Seattle had a mistake in its records and refused to provide a room for Edward in the middle of the night. Later, the apartment he stayed in, due to an accident of the water company (such accidents happen often in Uzbekistan) there was no cold water first, then no hot water, and then, after water suddenly came, it flooded the apartment. Finally, when Edward was leaving to America with his belatedly found luggage, the elevator broke, and we had to carry all of the bags down from the ninth floor. Despite those small misfortunes, he remained cheerful and happy. Only on his last day in Uzbekistan he became thoughtful and a little sad. It turned out later he was thinking about the necessity to part soon. We became so close during that week that parting seemed impossible, except it would be a parting in order to meet again. We met, but in Seattle, met in order not to part again, but to be husband and wife.
We got married in Las Vegas, exchanged rings and vows, went from Seattle to New York and returned back to Uzbekistan. I think that
in marriages where two different cultures meet, a full understanding is possible only in the case when one knows another person’s culture not only by books, but by living in one’s home country, by learning one’s mother tongue. I am very happy that he understood me and agreed to come and live in Tashkent for 1.5 years. “To make you happy, make your dreams come true.”
Dreams. Hope. Belief. The most important is to believe that God made a wonderful plan for each of us, plan to make us happy.
Sometimes people shall pass through many difficulties or ordeals in order to reach what one’s dream about, in order to be happy,
to gain peace and balance in soul. I was in despair that I could find real love and that fairy tales can happen only in books. But
God brought us together when both of us addressed Him deeply in our hearts, wishing to find friendship and love. It could happen
that your love could be far beyond the ocean, or it could be right in the city or neighborhood where you live. All you need is to
open your heart and to look at your friend closer, maybe he is your only one, your Valentine.