Joe DiMaggio's Flowers

Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe were married for 9 months in 1954. At the time they were each arguably the most famous and recognizable celebrities of their era. By all accounts they loved each other deeply, but as is so often the case when two people of their celebrity marry, the fire that burned between them consumed their relationship, and they divorced before they ever really had a chance to really experience a private life together.

Marilyn went on to other marriages and divorces, looking for whatever it was that seemed to elude her. She died in 1962, seemingly unknowable to even those who professed to be close to her. Joe never lost the passion he had for her, and just prior to her death they had been tentatively seeing each other again, with Joe even lending her money to help buy a house.

Upon her death, Joe was the one who tended to all the details, even though they had been divorced for years. All others in her life seemed to use her for their own benefit, and maybe even Joe did as well during their brief marriage, but in the intervening years the power and depth of his love for her seemed to have grown, and he seems to have realized what it was that he had lost.

While going through her things, and making the arrangements for her funeral, Joe found an unfinished letter to him, begun just a couple of days prior to her death. It read as follows: "Dear Joe, if I can only succeed in making you happy, I will have succeeded in the biggest and most difficult thing there is- that is, to make one person completely happy. Your happiness means my happiness and". The letter ended there. What a beautiful, painful thing to find. Who knows why she stopped where she did, or what would have followed the "and". But it showed the same depth of emotion that he had been feeling for her. The fact that it remained unfinished and unexpressed, or that it was expressed too late, makes it almost unbearably sad, but wonderful at the same time.

After the funeral, and for the next 20-some years, twice a week Joe had flowers delivered to Marilyns' crypt. He would never speak about this with anyone, he just did it. He never remarried, or even seemed to show any interest in any other woman, and remained reclusive for the most part, until his death.

I think maybe Joe was haunted by what could have been- by what remained unspoken, what was acknowledged too late, and spent the rest of his life pining for the woman who was his soulmate, and regreting that neither one of them fully realized it, until time ran out for both of them.

You see Liliana, I don't bring you flowers because I want to impress you, or woo you, or seduce you. I bring you flowers because I never want you to forget that I love you, and that I never want anything to be taken for granted between us. I want you to be able to glance up while walking through your home and to catch sight of something that symbolizes the feelings and love I have for you, and to know that I never want anything to be unspoken or unexpressed between us. I never want there to be any chance that I would ever take you for granted.

As I told you the other day- if I could I would make arrangements to have flowers delivered to you long after I leave this mortal coil. Even when I leave this earth, the love and passion I have for you will still surround you my love, and I would give anything to be able to have a physical reminder for you, so that you could look at it and smile and know that you were loved honestly and truly, and someone recognized your worth and value, and that you made a difference in my life.

So next time you pass through your house, pause and look and breathe deeply from the bouquets I bring you, they are far more than just flowers- they are the perfection and beauty that you represent to me, and always will.

I Love You- it will never be unexpressed babe.