It’s the kind of Valentine’s Day gift that makes a woman swoon – the kind that takes planning, effort and time: Not an investment of money, but clearly an investment of love.
It’s the kind of Valentine’s Day gift Nora Almazan received and will forever cherish.
Surprise!
On February 13, 2017, Rolando Almazan told his wife he had a Valentine’s Day surprise for her. She went to sleep that night wondering what it could be. Like a kid at Christmas, “I woke up looking for it,” she says.
It was hidden in plain sight.
“He told me to go about doing what I normally do and I would come across it,” Nora explains. Soon after, she did. “When I opened my Facebook page, I saw some of the comments first.” Facebook friends questioned, “How did he pull this off?”
Suddenly the gift came into full view and Nora realized exactly what her husband had done.
Special delivery
In the early morning hours with his unsuspecting wife fast asleep, Rolando uploaded dozens of photos of notes to Nora from around the world.
The locations were different – Abu Dhabi, England, Scotland, Malaysia, Virginia, Southern California, and Hershey, Pennsylvania, to name just a few. There were even notes sent from Hogwarts Castle in Orlando and from the Super Bowl in Houston, Texas.
Each note, carefully crafted by each bearers’ hand, carried the same 14 word message:
“Rolando’s love for his woman has reached the far corners of God’s beautiful earth.”
As Nora scrolled through the individual notes they collectively morphed into a love letter. “When I realized what he had done and the time it must’ve taken for him to do it, but even more, the willingness of people all around the globe to help, I was so overwhelmed!” she says.
Rolando says he was inspired by something similar he saw on a friend’s phone. Asked how he pulled it off he lightheartedly says, “I can’t reveal such ‘top secret’ information.” Still, he does reveal that it took approximately four weeks of around the clock coordination with family, friends, and friends of their friends to collect and upload the pictures without his wife knowing.
Rolando says he was “touched by the kindness of those who do not even know us” and was pleasantly bewildered as to why they would take the time to help him “tell the world of my love for my dear wife.”
He’s grateful they did.
“Sometimes, as men, we take our spouses for granted and assume that they know we love them…but I wanted to shout it from the top of the world that ‘I love my Nora’.”
She clearly saw, and heard, his message.
“I love notes,” Nora says. “I’d rather have a note than a gift any day!”
The notes found their permanent home on her Facebook page and, more importantly, in her heart.
One year later she still reflects on the joy of that day and the wonder of her Valentine’s Day surprise. “It truly means the world to me,” she says.
Nora’s Notes
Feb. 14, 2017
