A sweet story of Valentine’s Day confusion

Seeing all the Valentine’s paraphernalia in the stores, Ramona Fletcher of Everett made an honest mistake.

On Jan. 14 she was gripped with panic — realizing the 14th was the next day.

“A quick shopping trip, and I had a gift and a Valentine’s Day card for my husband, Robert,” Fletcher says. “I put both in his lunch case so that he would have a nice surprise the following day.”

She realized before he got home the next day that she was a month early. Fletcher braced to be teased, but that isn’t the sort of man she married.

“He called and told me not to make dinner, he was bringing home all the ingredients and would cook a Valentine’s Day dinner for us that night,” she says. “I told him not to do that, that I realized I was a month off.”

But he insisted on celebrating Valentine’s Day on Jan. 14.

He loved his card and gift, and says they will do it all again on Feb. 14.

—-

Nate Christian has a day job at Verizon Communications in Everett.

He has an alter-ego at night: Jim Morrison.

He plays in a Doors tribute band, called The American Night, coming to Sultan at 9 p.m. Feb. 14 at Bubba’s Roadhouse.

Well come on, baby, light my fire.

The group plays around the Northwest, paying tribute to the rock and cultural icons.

“I have been a huge Doors fan since birth,” Christian says. “Both of my parents were heavily into The Doors, and the music was played around our house in Los Angeles constantly.”

He says he is convinced that he heard every Doors album before he was born.

“Of course, we play all of the familiar parts that is obligatory as a tribute band, but there is more to our show than a note-for-note rehash of the music. Since The Doors were best as a live band, we re-create a lot of the improvisation, poetry, and interaction of a Doors concert.”

Christian says because of his early immersion, he has an uncanny ability to step into Jim Morrison’s head to channel the Lizard King.

—-

Did anyone out there know Pvt. Richard Solver of Edmonds?

He was killed on Jan. 23, 1945, in France, during the liberation of the French city of Ostheim.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8870 in Edmonds is trying to find his relatives, says Jim Traner, senior vice commander. The Edmonds VFW post received a request from a post in New Jersey seeking information about Solver.

The city of Ostheim is honoring veterans and those killed in action during that battle.

Let me know if you have Solver’s date of birth and where he is buried — 425-339-3451.

I’ll pass the information on.

—-

Rose Mitcham of Lynnwood, chapter regent and state lineage chairwoman for the Marcus Whitman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, says David Dilgard, Everett historian, is in the running for a National Daughters of the American Revolution Community Service Award in the area of history.

Dilgard told members that he should be giving them an award for their achievements, Mitcham says.

“Isn’t he a wonderfully humble man?” she says.

Humble, yes, and he knows where all the historical bodies are buried around the county.

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com

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