How Do You Spell Love?

Two hundred is a nice number. When a long time ago, I was moving towards two hundred in weight, I went to Weight Watchers to lose sixty pounds. I accomplished it. When I worked in 1959 and earned two hundred dollars per week, I thought I was mighty rich. When I got engaged in 1959, we got married 200 days after I received my ring. We bought our first and only home and moved in 200 days after it was finished being built. Two hundred is a fine number for me. Now it means another great event had just happened. I was writing my two hundredth article for Hunt Valley- when this article was first published. I began these articles on July 19th, 2011and on July 11th, 2012, was my 200th and here it is. I started off writing mostly about ballroom dancing and also about turning into a senior citizen. Now I write for Fairfax Station and I am approaching my 50th article since February 4th and 4x 50 equals 200. Two Hundred seems to be my lucky number. Now I mix the stories with narratives of my growing up in 1944 as a little girl, a teen in 1947, able to take my first alcoholic drink in 1955 and also to vote then too. I married in 1960, became a first time mom in 1961 and a second time mom in 1965. I lost my Dad in 1964 and my Mom in 1984. I became a great aunt in 1981 and a great, great aunty in 2009. I started writing for the dance magazine in 1990 and online for dance sites in 2005. These are a lot of dates to remember and to never forget. Also, writing for the Patch for many years now. Some people get high on alcohol, eating sweet desserts, buying lots of clothes, shoes and household niceties and going on vacations. All of the above does give me a high, except I do not drink. I did not even drink at my children’s weddings or my own wedding. The desserts, the clothes, shoes, items for the home and going on vacations; are my past and current joys. Now I add writing articles, several a week for The Patch, is listed in my favorite past times. When I complete a story, I feel so fulfilled, because many times I have related nice stories of my past. I always thought that maybe I had lived a boring life, but when I relive past times, I realize that they were very interesting days, years, events and happenings. I am cognizant of the facts of young years, teen years, young adult years, middle adult years and now active adult years as a senior. They were not boring, nor was I bored. I did not have lots of material possessions, but I had fine and caring parents, a nice brother who was five years older than me, a good job after high school from 1951-1960. I have had a good married life of fifty- six years, first a courtship of two years until engagement days and marriage six and half months later. I got my college degree in 1974. I have been blessed with two children, a nice home, traveling, a car of my own and lots of possessions in my home of decorating quality. What more can one ask of life other than hoping for continued fairly good health and peaceful days? I have four grandchildren, each one unique, darling, smart, beautiful and handsome. I have three grandsons and one granddaughter, so I have both sexes. Next, if I live long enough, I can say I will be a great grandmother. My writings for The Patch are a blessing too. I found Nayana Davis, the editor and she found me and we made a great team. I write, she publishes and I know I am happy and I am sure she is too.A saying is that retirement is a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked. I wrote while I was young, then again in 1990 and have continued since then to now 2016. I have been constantly creating my stories on the past and on ballroom dancing for different publications. I can honestly say that the one publication that has given me so much pleasure and a lot of ego lifting is The Patch- the Hunt Valley-Cockeysville Patch was really my first stop in Patchville. When we shopped at Wegmans in Hunt Valley or go to the stores in the shopping center there in the Hunt Valley-Cockeysville area, I look around and think to myself- yeah for Elita, this is her writing home, a home away from home, where her stories are read, thought about and hopefully enjoyed by all the people living there in these two communities. So I have been blessed in having my folks for my parents, my husband, my children, my home, my in-law children, my four grandchildren, fairly healthy health, my travels, my ballroom dancing of thirty-three years and now for the past years, days, of writing for my beloved Patch. Now I write for Fairfax Station in Virginia and I am happy for this. As they say at Weight Watchers, when you weigh in to see how much weight you have lost this past week, Bravo to you. By writing for The Patch, I say Bravo Elita, you have not lost, you have gained and this gain is pretty wonderful. Also, my new doctors all of them, who help me through these senior years, to continue on living well and therefore, I can be the writer I strive to continue on being. I have my favorite dancing, email pal-Steven Behr, Sr. who encourages me to continue on writing about ballroom dancing and inspiring everyone to do it and to love it. He says I invigorate others and he in turn, emboldens me to write, to be healthy and happy. He is a Wellness Educator in Washington State. I always quote my favorite saying from my best liked movie, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and this is it. The hero William Holden says to the heroine Jennifer Jones, upon leaving for the war to do his job as a journalist, “If I do not come back, you and I have not missed, because we have had the many splendored thing.” My life has been bright, shiny, and exceptional and I have not missed anything. One of the components beside family has been my writing and now having added Fairfax Station, I surely have not missed, because I have all of my many splendored things. How do you spell love? You feel it.