A Wisconsin Winter Valentines Love Story To Warm Your Heart

Bud Caldwell leaves a penny and a daisy for his
late wife at a Fond du Lac, Wisconsin park bench.
Park employees saw this going on every day, so they
keep a path cleared in the snow for Caldwell
so he can get to the bench daily.  

Valentines Day is coming up, so that puts people in the mood for love stories.

Plus it's winter, and we all need any excuse to warm our hearts.

Which might make it strange then, that I'm now taking you to the bitter cold winter winds of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

But here it goes:

Bud Caldwell's wife of 56 years died two years ago. Caldwell, 82, bought and dedicated a bench in his wife's honor at Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac, a very nice, semi-forested area of the park.

Every day, day in and day out, Caldwell brings a penny and a daisy to the park bench so he can commune with his late wife, says television station WDJT in Milwaukee.

The songs "Pennys From Heaven" and "Daisy A Day" were the couple's favorites, so that's why Caldwell does this.

"A lot of people might think it's a dumb thing," Caldwell told Fox 11, another television station in the Milwaukee area.

That's the one thing the otherwise perfect and adorable Caldwell is wrong about. I bet everybody joins me in thinking that's the most charming thing in the world.

Needless to say, it snows quite a bit in Fond du Lac in the winter. Last year, Caldwell fell while trying to trudge through the snow to the park bench.

This year, when it snowed, Caldwell understandably didn't want to risk slipping and sliding through the deep snow to the bench.

We'll let WDJT pick up the story:

"So, he sat in his car and spoke to Betty instead, that is until two Fond du Lac parks employees noticed his routine.

Jerrod Ebert and Kevin Schultz got shovels and cleared the path for Bud.

The gesture brougth them both to tears, but Ebert and Schultz couldn't bear to see Bud not be able to leave his daisy and penny.

'We have to make sure he can get to his bench and talk to his wife,' Ebert said.

Bud said that Ebert and Schultz have vowed to keep the path clear all winter for him. So, as long as he can, Bud will leave his daisy and penny for Betty."

When Caldwell visits, he catches her up on the events of the day, how her friends are doing, and all that. When he leaves, he says "I'll see you later, Munchkin."

Honestly, it melts your heart, if not the snow.

Of course, visuals always help with the story. So, here's video from another local television station, Fox 11, which also covered the story.

Warning: Major Kleenex alert if you watch the following video: