A Valentine for My True Love
It’s Valentine’s Day and I can’t help but think about how it has been 20 years since I truly fell in love. My affection has never ebbed; it has always flowed. When separated by distance, the absence only made my heart grow fonder.
I am in love with the ocean. I also love Rehoboth. It’s the longest and best relationship I have ever had.
I first came to know this delightful beach town in the fall of 2002. As a newer resident to Delaware, lured by love that turned out to be a mirage, I hadn’t been downstate, as the locals said.
I had a vague recollection from one of my father’s “look what I found on a map so let’s go check it out” trips to Delaware State Seashore Park when I was about eight, but foggy memories at best. And as for beaches, my family mostly went to down the shore, as the locals there say, to Ocean City, New Jersey. We didn’t know what we were missing.
In 2002, I was a reporter covering topics statewide and a press release arrived in my newsroom for a Rehoboth Beach event. A beach, about an hour from where I sat? I persuaded my editor, for the first time of many, that the slower lower needed to be covered and I was willing to make the sacrifice to drive all the way down there to do it. I would make the trek. To the beach. What a trouper.
That first work trip was short, on a sunny September day, but something about the town made me want to return. I planned a getaway the next Valentine’s Day. It was for my IRL relationship, but it ended up being the beginning of a relationship with the real love of my life. There’s just something about Rehoboth’s vibe, something I can’t name, that made me want to return. And I did and I have, many, many times.
During that first long weekend, I spent so much time walking around town, in and out of all the shops (RIP Tempus Fugit). I met so many friendly people. I loved waving back to the ocean that never failed to wave first. It hasn’t always been sunshine. In fact, I remember one week in June, circa 2005, where it rained four out of five days of my vacation. And sure, sometimes even the ocean has bad days. During another trip, what looked like a serene January day, cold but quiet, turned into a scene from The Wizard of Oz as the wind off the ocean threatened to toss me from the boardwalk all the way up to the roundabout at the entrance to town.
But even a rainy, windy, crappy day in Rehoboth is better than a sunny day anywhere else.
There’s ocean up and down the coast not far from the Philadelphia neighborhood where I grew up, but it never felt like home away from home. I’ve been to many beaches in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, and more. After I met ocean in Rehoboth, though, I never go anywhere else. I took trips with the mirage I was (formerly) legally bound to and many times by myself. (Imagine your “love” introducing you to your lifelong love and you ditch the former but keep the latter. Awkward.) During one especially therapeutic trip, I tossed all previous mirages into the ocean (figuratively and spiritually of course). The ocean graciously accepted, drowned, and swept them all out to sea. Then, we watched the day wane into twilight, the ocean nipping my toes, me amazed by the colors on the horizon changing from light blue to pinks, purples, then almost black. Hello, moon. The next day—good morning, dolphins.
During a trip in late 2019, just before the world changed, I realized that my love of the ocean and of this town has never wavered. Rehoboth and the ocean have always been here for me, a part of me. Being apart for so long due to COVID was difficult, but we reunited in February 2022, and it felt so good. After more than two years, the first place I wanted to go was where I always found solace, beauty, and joy. Everything had changed—except Rehoboth and the ocean. As ever, they were waiting for me.
I don’t remember which late 2010s trip made me finally put a ring on it—a wave ring bought to celebrate my true love, to have it with me always. and to relegate all other relationships forever to second place. So Happy Valentine’s Day to my favorite sea, sand, and sun, and funky town downstate. You’ll always have my heart, candy and otherwise. I love Rehoboth. It’s the longest and best relationship I have ever had. ▼
Tara Lynn Johnson is caregiving in Pennsylvania, but her heart lives in Rehoboth near the ocean. Visit her online at taralynnjohnson.com.
Photo: Joel Demott, Unsplash.com