Valentine's Message from Grandma to Grandpa 1925

Nurses tend to have a "different" sense of humor.  We all know that.

I suppose that would include my Grandmother.  I never really knew her to tell jokes or kid around much when I was growing up, but there were stories.

I recall looking through an old photo album at her house years ago.  I ran across a picture of my Grandpa with a bicycle in a crowd of young people.  There was a chunk missing in the middle of the photo - as if a person were cut out of it.

"What happened here?" I asked my mother, pointing to the hole in the picture, fearful that one of the little cousins had done it.

"Oh....that was a photo of Grandpa with his old girlfriend..."  Mom laughed. "I guess Grandma didn't like it that he had that photo...and cut her out of the picture..."

I looked at my mother in disbelief. What?? Grandma - jealous??? It was difficult to think of my Grandma having the same emotions as me....

So -  I can just imagine - Grandma in Holland - Grandpa in Canada - the two years they were apart and never seeing each other the entire time while engaged... waiting for Grandma to immigrate - her imagination perhaps running wild and that jealous streak rearing it's ugly head .....

It took weeks to travel from Holland to Alberta, Canada - by boat and then train - and the only trip out to see each other was going to be a permanent one.

To keep their relationship alive,  my Grandma would send letters and little gifts to prod my Grandpa's memory of their love....

Now, I know nurses can have a sick sense of humor and usually the gory stuff is shared with co-workers, not  family members.  Most people don't understand our sense of humor.....

I think that in the Harry Potter books, chocolate frogs were an item to give out -
perhaps that was a tradition way back when....??

But, in 1925 my Midwife RN Grandma decided that it was somehow romantic to send Grandpa a Chocolate Frog with a poem she wrote -  (and here it is - translated from Dutch to English) :

" If one wants to become a nurse, one needs to learn so much,
One sits for days studying with her nose in the books, Practical and Theory and lastly Anatomy,
In so doing we need a frog, and in bisecting it, it gets much bigger,
First under the microscope one clearly sees the movement of blood,
Then one works with the sinews, then the head is cut off to study it some more,
The blood streams between the threads,
With a needle one pricks into the backbone,
Now it's time for the heart to come out, first it must be drained,
And just as the doctor says, "A half hour yet before it stops beating"
But no, even if the heart is laying away from its body
(Even with poor eyesight you can see it constantly moving,)
The brains spill out; you'll be sure it'll be in next years' exams.
If you're a vegetarian don't eat meat, or fish,
Don't wear any fur or muffs, or leather shoes
If you come up against lice or fleas, don't kill 'em you'll pay for it
This whole story is a joke;
This frog is made of chocolate, so just enjoy eating it"

I wonder what my Grandpa thought.....??