HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- A North Carolina man who lost his wife to ovarian cancer wrote 100 love notes in her honor. He is now asking others to share the love. Hyong Yi’s beloved wife Catherine A. Zanga died on November 21 last year, leaving behind two children.
“I hate it. This has been the toughest year, and this is not what I imagined my life to be,” Yi said.
Zanga graduated from Henrico’s Douglas Freeman High School in 1991 before ultimately settling in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“She loved that area. She loved growing up there,” Yi said.
Yi is now honoring his wife’s memory through words of love.
“I thought about it, thought about it, and then I was like, I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to write love notes. One hundred love notes, and on the anniversary of her death I’m going to hand them out in Uptown to strangers,” Yi said.
The love notes were inspired by Yi’s love story with his wife.
He also created a Facebook page and website, 100LoveNotes.com, where he shares his moving letters and urges others to write their own expressions of love.
“It’s causing people to stop, take a pause, and reflect on what’s important in their life…the people they love,” Yi said.
His efforts blossomed into something of a movement, and it’s one that seems to already be taking off in Richmond.
Jesse Peters said he thought this was a beautiful idea.
“It’s good to be pulled out of your comfort zone and say stuff like that that you feel all the time but never say,” Peters said.
Peters shared a love note of his own dictated to his wife saying “I wouldn’t be who I was without my wife.”
Laura Paster said she thought the world needed more love notes.
“People like being told they are special and I think a lot of times people need to be reminded of that,” Paster said.
Paster wrote a note about her best friend saying, “I just really really love her and I really care about her.”
People from all across the world have joined Yi with the 100LoveNotes hashtag on Twitter.
