Sheri and Craig Loomis, who have been married for 45 years, don’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day. But this year’s day of love came with a surprise for Sheri.

“My husband doesn’t usually give me flowers, but he did this year. I don’t know why. I guess I’ve been good… I guess he was feeling all lovey dovey this year,” Sheri said. “I got them on Saturday, so I got to enjoy them for longer, which was awesome.”

In addition to roses, carnations and daisies from Bell’s Store, the Loomises enjoyed sumptuous Super Bowl leftovers: blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting and a chowder of smoked salmon, crab, lingcod and clam.

Their Valentine’s Day, spent in part with their 16-month-old granddaughter, was not too different from the experiences of several other couples interviewed by the CVN, all of whom kept it low-key but ever so loving.

Tom and Liz Heywood, who have been married for more than 40 years, gifted each other red wine and a box of chocolates, as they usually do. “We’ve been married so long we don’t do much,” Liz said.

But for the first time Liz sent their three adult children, all in the Lower 48, shadow boxes full of heart rocks. “I’ve been collecting heart rocks for decades and I just sent them shadow boxes to celebrate how much I love them,” Liz said. “She did a pretty heroic effort,” Tom added.

Tracey Harmon and Gabe Thomas enjoyed homemade chocolate and cheese fondues.

Lexie DeWitt was home with her children while husband Stuart was in Juneau fishing. But the distance didn’t keep him from sending her flowers. “I came home from picking kids up from school, and they were on the counter,” Lexie said.

For the second year in a row, friends Fred Gray and Jeanne Kitayama volunteered to deliver flowers for florist Doris Bell. “Doris gets a little stacked up at Valentine’s Day, so we’re the little cupids that make the deliveries,” Gray said.

And what did Fred do for wife Bittan to celebrate their romance? “I got her flowers, of course,” he said.

Other partnered residents said they didn’t do much — because Valentine’s Day was on a Monday, or because they don’t buy into Hallmark holidays, or because there aren’t many places to dine out, or for whatever reason.

It was the classic gestures, small but thoughtful — flowers, cards, wine and chocolate — that kept Haines’ lovers satisfied this year.