Love at First Write

A love story started with a secret note and kept alive with a single red rose

January-February 2026

by Laura Emery, Staff Writer

A good love story often begins with a little mystery. This one started with a handwritten note taped to a door, signed only “Your Secret Admirer.”

When Gary Moore, of Hopewell, Va., found the note, it piqued his curiosity. At Prince Paving, where he worked, he proudly showed the note off to his coworkers. What he didn’t know is that his secret admirer was much closer than he thought — his coworker’s sister, Shirley Hedrick. Gary sometimes drove her brother home after their shifts, and that’s how the two had crossed paths.

Shirley eventually confessed to penning the mysterious love note, and the two went on their first date. What followed was a whirlwind of dancing, handwritten notes and countless hours of laughter. Before long, two hearts merged into one.

A VALENTINE’S DAY WEDDING

Shirley and Gary decided to get married on the quintessential day for love: Valentine’s Day, in 1986. But, as is often the case with a good love story, there was an unexpected bump in the road.

Their wedding day dawned with a thick blanket of snow across Central Virginia. On his way home from work to prepare for the ceremony, Gary’s car lost traction and slid off the road. After trudging through the snow to find a pay phone and arrange for a tow, he rushed to be with his bride. Despite arriving two hours late, the two were married that snowy Valentine’s Day.

The couple started a family together and raised four sons and three daughters.

Gary showed his affection not with extravagance, but with the timeless simplicity of a single red rose. Over the years, he brought many roses to the woman he adored.

In 2016, the family was heartbroken when Gary died of a heart attack at age 65. For Shirley, Valentine’s Day has never been the same.

“It’s been a hard nine years,” their daughter, Tammy Moore-Edwards, says, her voice trembling with emotion. “Lots of late-night phone calls just to talk about my dad and cry together.”

Tammy and her husband, Chad, and their three children — Eric, 19; Kyle, 17; and Summer, 14 — live in Dewitt, Va., and are members of Southside Electric Cooperative.

To fill the void her father left, Tammy created a Valentine’s Day tradition that means a lot to her mother. “One at a time, I have each grandchild hand my mom a single red rose,” she says. Tammy also prepares her mom’s favorite meal.

“After my dad passed, my mom shared a lot of stories with me. My mom told me about their first date, where they saw a drive-in movie. My dad reclined his seat to get comfortable, but he did not know he had laid his hair in the ash tray — which was full of ashes and bubblegum. My mom said she laughed and laughed. The remainder of the date was spent helping him get gum out of his hair,” Tammy says.

Her parents loved to dance, even if Gary’s moves were memorable for all the wrong reasons. Tammy laughs at the thought. “He was an awful dancer. Those were my mother’s exact words,” she says. “He dances like he’s boxing. But that’s what my mother loved about him — his goofy self. He made her laugh all the time.”

According to Tammy, her parents were quick to forgive each other. She says, “My mom is always quoting Bible verses, and I think [her faith] got them through a lot of things.”

Gary even had his own brand of romance. “He’d tell my mom he’d wine and dine her,” Tammy says, “and then take her to Long John Silver’s. It still makes her laugh to this day.”

It’s those moments that Tammy says she wants her mother to remember fondly on Valentine’s Day, which is why she wrote Cooperative Living and shared her mother’s love story.

Feb. 14 will mark 40 years since that memorable day when two hearts became one. She says, “It’s a hard day for my mom, but I know it would mean so much to her — and me — to be able to share their love story.”