Ruth Denyer
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

My oldest brother Bob (a.k.a. Butch) died in a gliding accident when he was 25 in 1974.

Recently, a childhood friend of his contacted my sister. Lois used to live next door to us in Toronto and even though her family moved to B.C. when she was a teenager, our families remained close.

While my tall and handsome brother became an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, Lois worked as a stewardess for Wardair — I remember her as impossibly beautiful, glamorous and so much fun to be with.

In later years, Lois heard from my mother that Butch had written some entries about her in the journals he kept from 1968 to 1974.

By the time she contacted my sister, she was a woman in her late sixties and was curious as to what had been written.

Since I was in possession of his effects, I pulled out his journals one February evening and started reading. So heartbreaking.

Butch was absolutely in love with Lois and never got the chance to tell her.

In one of his final entries, he writes about getting a flight to Europe, where Lois was stationed at the time, not to see the cathedrals or monuments, but to find her and ask her to marry him.

However, something else took precedent — he loved to fly his glider, lived to fly as a matter of fact, and he was scheduled to participate in a gliding event in Alberta.

Unfortunately, he died during an emergency landing of the craft he was piloting during the competition and was killed instantly.

With tears in my eyes, I photocopied the journal entries and mailed them to Lois.

She received them in time for Valentine’s Day, a long overdue Valentine from Butch to Lois.

She sent my sister and me an email saying that once she stopped crying, she couldn’t stop smiling.

The moral of the story? If there is someone in your life whom you love, take them in your arms and tell them how much they mean to you.

If you’re in a new relationship, wear your heart on your sleeve and risk telling the person how they make you feel and how happy you are to be with them.

If you’re by yourself, please know that love may happen to you anytime, anywhere — keep the faith and let your heart be open to receiving.

And if you’ve suffered from a broken heart, I can assure you that the nice thing about hearts is that they mend and seem to get stronger at those broken places.

I truly believe that to put yourself out there and love (or love again) is well worth the risk.