For many couples, Valentine’s Day traditions are about small acts of appreciation, having fun, or keeping the romance of a relationship alive. But for Albuquerque, N.M., natives Ron and Donna Kramer, who are going on nearly four decades of celebrating the same Feb. 14 tradition, one box of chocolates has quite literally become their lifeline.

After meeting for the first time in January 1979, the then-37-year-old Ron and 34-year-old Donna began to date, just in time for the romanticized holiday. They were both divorced and looking for love, and Ron asked his new girlfriend how she felt about a box of chocolates — Donna wasn’t shy about getting specific about her favorite kind.

“I like dark chocolate cremes and I like it from Buffett’s Candies,” Ron recalls Donna saying when the couple spoke to local news station KOAT. From that moment on, a tradition was unknowingly born.

Ron went to the Albuquerque-based candy shop to get his love interest just the treat she wanted, to later find out that if he brought the same box back in years to come, he could get the gift refilled for just the price of the chocolates. The possibility of a whimsical tradition delighted Donna just as much as her favorite sweet, and she deemed the young insurance salesman “a keeper.”

Full story here.

It’s Valentine's Day and all of us with significant others are thinking about this, and everybody who’s flying solo is glad to not have to think about it: what to fucking get your lover. The age-old question of what to do that allows you to say “fuck this cliched holiday” and “god I love this holiday” at the same time. It’s got to be clever, a little showy, and definitely meaningful. Even you fucks who have “mellow” Valentine’s Days are showing off by not having to do that much. Don’t think I don’t see right through your fucking guise. To be fair I think some of the challenge of Valentine’s Day is to take normal activities and make them seem romantic, and in that category this guy fucks most of all. Meet the guy who has gotten his wife the same box of chocolates for the past 40 fucking years. You call it romantic? Sure. It’s romantic, but let’s not kid around, it’s laziness surrounded in a cloak of romanticism. I’m not even hating on it. This guy’s fooled everybody and good for him, but let’s slow down when suddenly we’re looking at this as the most romantic gesture since Rose drowned Jack for more space on the frozen piece of driftwood. Sure this guy lucked out that his now-wife loves literally only one type of chocolate in the world, but it’s too easy. It’s just too easy.

In 2014, Donna was diagnosed with dementia, which eventually landed her in an assisted-living facility without the love of her life.

“She couldn’t write, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t go to the restroom, she couldn’t do anything by herself,” Ron said. “She had to go into a home in August of 2015. And that was probably the saddest day of my life.”

Ron is still with Donna daily, bringing small treats with him as he visits her at the home. Although he fears the day that she’ll forget who he is, he’s savoring the moments that he has with her and her long-term memory, which keeps their beautiful tradition of the box of chocolates intact.

Okay, I’m an asshole. I haven’t seen the Notebook but I’m pretty sure this is it. Happy Valentine’s day. I've got to start finishing articles before I start writing the corresponding blog.