SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Bubbly beverages on ice and spoonfuls of chocolate mousse. It's Valentine's Day at the Maine Veterans' Home in Scarborough.
"This is called the sweetheart luncheon," said Matile Hugo, visiting her husband Mike.
They've been married 57 years.
"I'm blushing," joked Mike Hugo.
Their love story chronicled in 57 years' worth of love letters.
"Putting it down on paper's different, especially your emotions on paper, because you can't [do that] with any other medium," he explained.
But down the hall, there were more love stories. A group of veterans spent the afternoon reading aloud. The stories they read were about surprises all before a surprise of their own.
A parade of high school seniors suddenly appeared. The brought dozens of hand-written Valentine's Day cards.
It was Madelynn Drolet's idea to deliver them to the veterans here.
"My grandfather actually was here for quite a while. He was on hospice, they took great care of him," she said. "For them to have outside visitors means the world to them because it's almost isolation in here. They're still apart of the world but they can't really leave."
Leaving a card for a stranger or a love letter to your better half.
A message can be the best gift of all.
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