In the February installment, Bernard gave Thomas a “dove box” with a small message inside. Now that it has been returned to him to help facilitate his memory, I figured I would talk about the real life story behind the dove box. (I apologize in advance – these are not the best photos and I fail as a photographer. A little ironic, huh? ;)).

When I was posting the first story online, I met a lot of really great people. Some became really great friends and I would get to meet some of them at concerts and other road trips that we would organize together. But some friends became quite close, some manifesting into really strong relationships. Katie was one of those relationships, and unfortunately, we were separated by an ocean. She lived in Ireland at the time, and I was still doing my undergrad in Canada. Definitely very, very far away. But out of all the long-distance relationships that I did during my undergrad, she was by far the strongest and the most long-standing. We were on and off for two or three years. Moreover, she gave me one of the most romantic presents I have ever received.

She told me one day that she had bought me the perfect thing at the market in town and that she was mailing it that week. We had maybe been talking really personally since the summer and it was getting to be November again, I believe. So I waited patiently, with her instructions to let her know as soon as  I got it, and what I thought. When I opened the package, this was what was inside, very similar to how I describe it in the story:

Tiny wooden box, very similar in shape and size to a ring box. This has an om symbol on the top of it and I excluded that description for the book. The dove itself is pretty tiny and fits in the palm of my hand. There is a scroll of paper and when I unrolled it, Katie’s handwriting stared back at me, declaring, “Thank you. I love you.”

Cue heart melting, right? This was the first time we had said that to one another; it was the first real tangible indication that we had of one another and our feelings (I obviously went online right after and told her I loved her, too). It blew me away at the time, and though things didn’t work out for us romantically,  I still think of this fondly. We were both such romantics at heart when we were younger, and probably still are a little bit.

Although I still think this is probably the most creative way anyone has said this to me, Travis is giving Katie a lot of competition. ;) I’m going to end this perhaps too personal post with “Transatlanticism” by Death Cab for Cutie, that Katie and I used to listen to all the time. Clearly.