Through The Words They Wrote...
They Share Their Love

Cover: Twenty-five years and I am still overcome by a single glance, a single touch... Inside: Happy Anniversary to my Beautiful Wife.

Words are powerful. In a relationship, the words you say... or don't say... set the mood. The words in the anniversary cards couples give to each other over the years, reveal the secrets of their love. Children or grandchildren who inherit these treasures often find a connection to the love that created and nurtured them. These anniversary cards share the important lesson of the value and beauty of putting your feelings down on paper— even if only once a year.

Hallmark knows about love and about anniversary cards that express those special feelings. They capture what you want to say so well that more than 27 million Hallmark wedding anniversary cards are given each year. Did you ever stop to wonder what happens to all those cards? The truth is that there are many more romantics than you'd believe.

Couples often keep the anniversary cards they give to each other. Tied with string or ribbon and tucked away, hidden in desk or bureau drawers, in the corner of the closet or in a shoebox with some old pictures they wait to be found. When they finally are, the result becomes a chronicle of their love over time, according to Sharman Robertson, Hallmark historian and archivist.

"As the years together increase, couples begin to treasure their cards, and often children inherit anniversary card collections that include priceless personal notes from the couple to each other, giving children and grandchildren insight into the love that created them, and grew over time," Robertson says.

"Many of the personal [anniversary] card collections that have been donated to Hallmark are in acquired antique collections that document the love between a husband and wife. Even if you don't know the individuals, you can see the kind of love they shared by reading the cards they selected – and especially the personal notes that they wrote..."

Hallmark may be famous for writers who can express sentiments, but they are certainly not the only sentimentalists. Going through papers with a great-grandson one day, an 87 year woman found early cards from her beau, saved for more than half a century. The teenaged boy sat, reading through the simple words of love sent long before he was born, by a great-grandfather he never met. The teen was introduced to his roots and his future as a man who could share deep emotions - even if only in cards and letters. Those faded cards, and the man who wrote them, are now part of his life as treasured memories.

Remember, when it comes time to pick the words for your next anniversary card, through good times and bad...for better or worse, the small tokens that express your love are the ones that are embedded forever in your loved one's heart. Those words will be cherished more and longer than any gift that accompanies them. They don't need to be poetry or brilliant masterpieces. If your words simply say, "You are special to me and I love you," in their own way, they will be better than anything the best poets at Hallmark could come up with.

Source: Hallmark Cards