Some time ago, I asked my mother what is love? She took me by my shoulder and she said; "It's something you have to learn yourself. Hope, it is something special that you will hopefully discover about a wonderful person you may meet one day, your time will come, my son." Her expression was gentle and sweet the entire time.

I went to my room with doubt encroaching my heart. I did not understand the magnitude of the words she uttered to me that night.

A few months later I was thrown into an adventure that even my imagination at its most bizarre could not come up with. When it began, I lost my mother... without ever figuring out what love was.

As a youngster, I looked at girls from time to time, but apparently the charge of hormones led me to be very interested with another the next day.

My journey as a l'cie made me mature in many aspects of my young life. In the middle of all this, I had laid my eyes on the most beautiful girl i have ever seen. As we recover the reins of our destiny, for the very first time I realized I was afraid, I had found what I believed to be, love.

I couldn't stop my heart from beating so loudly as she asked me, I obeyed her, I went to college with the sole purpose of forgetting what terrified me greatly, unrequited love.

But fate had other plans with me, and nobody could stop us as we crossed paths again. Four years later, sure, maybe it's been a while, but the more I look into her beautiful eyes, and felt no fear, the more something inside my heart started screaming away, now begging for your divine light that is your presence to illuminate my lost heart. And you did not recognize me at all, I was taller than you. I'm not that little boy that you once knew, I am now a man.

The day I took charge, with courage in my heart and more nervous than anything, I asked the question. I was elated beyond belief, I couldn't control myself more, I couldn't hide it anymore, I thought you deserved to know. I took your hand and put it on my chest, then I went close to your ear. In one breath, one subtle but heavy breath, I finally used the words I was waiting to use.

"I love you."

You looked at me surprised, but I was even more surprised when you took me by the collar of my shirt, forcing me to bend down and kiss me... damn! The felt better than a kiss goodnight... It did not take me long to recover from the shock and return the gesture. When we stopped for air, you whispered the words that made me the happiest man in the entire universe:

"I love you, too."

A few months later, the words that my late mother told me were starting to make sense, then gradually learned that love meant more than one thing. It was not exactly easy, but it was worth it all.

I was very scared and it did no better to see that you were also scared as I think about it... Yes I did remember, because I'm the only one to whom you allow to see that side, the side of your fear. Love can be scary sometimes, perhaps always, but love is always interesting. Its like having a fight, while always winning the prize, but at the same time, you can always lose the prize.

A year later, I proposed marriage.

I bought a nice ring for you, the most beautiful woman I had ever know. Actually, it was common diamond ring, but had original designs. I was about to give you a necklace, but I thought the ring would look best on your beautiful hands.

We were married that same year, a beautiful ceremony, small, but yet, very beautiful. Not as much as you in that white dress, the way your hair moved with the wind, the way I looked at... It was beautiful!

Three days before my twentieth birthday, you gave me the best news ever. You were pregnant! I have to accept it, but Snow was much more surprised than me.

As we found out there were two instead of one, I almost fainted. Did you? Well... We were... Upset by the break, especially when your boss uttered the phrase "You can not go to work."

I must say it was a unique experience, except for morning vomiting. The mood swings weren't fun. The best part was when we had to order Chinese food that you ate the whole ... And yet you were still hungry!

Never underestimate a woman about to have twins. You would otherwise end up as Snow did when she broke his jaw after making a comment that you had gained weight. Damn... I also got hit that day, I made the mistake of laughing at Snow's remark. But its not like you broke my jaw, I could not breathe after the punch she gave me.

When I finally saw them... I do not know if I was more than terrified, as I saw them, I could not breathe. I was full of joy. They are my life, all of my family. All three of them, my wife and twins. Its all that I could ever want, all I needed, everything I love.

Today, I came to the question i asked you those nine long years ago. The only thing that I can compare it with is the sea, starting at the top of a mountain where the snow melts and becomes water, becoming a stream. As you progress, you become a river, with calm waters, turbulent, but always flowing. The current can soften even the hardest of the rocks.

Love is something very abstract, think about those who stop at the first spring, the first gap, but know not, your love can only be reached by those who reach the end of the river and flow into the sea, as infinite, and it may be frightening to look down. But you jump. You jump, you find many things so beautiful that the whole trip was worth it.

I used to listen to people talk, they told me that the person you had chosen should have known to talk about it, because over time it would matter. I never learned that before learning to talk about it, learn to listen to you, I can tell you that silence... also gives comfort.

What we say that there is love, it transcends age, I was told that her eyes and her lips would become my favorite addiction, like loving the air or the wind, like having the light of hope.

That special person will show a side that no one else has the right to see, and then you realize, that person becomes the meaning of love.

Now mother, I am standing at your grave, with my wife Claire Farron Estheim, also Lieutenant, or as others call her, Lightning. She takes my hand while I stand, reading the letter aloud, our kids play in the shade of a tree. I fold the letter with the answer to my question, and my eldest son, who was only seven years old, Dean, came to me and watching me with those blue eyes he inherited from his mother,and asked me.

"Dad ... what is love?"