A Love Story, Written in 271 Pages

By Brandon C. Williams

Editor, The Post Newspaper

When Matthew Daniel’s wife accused him of not being romantic, the Texas City native decided to prove her wrong.

Boy, did he ever.

Daniels didn’t buy flowers, take her on a moonlit cruise or sneak away for a romantic getaway. Nope. Instead he decided to write a book about her, which he will present to his wife, Raquel on their 12th anniversary on Friday.

“I’m not into the typical stuff,” said Daniels, “so I did what I do best: write. It took me two months to complete, but I know that once she sees this, she will never tell me I’m not romantic.”

The book, titled “My Beautiful and Loving Wife” (which will also be available on Amazon on Friday) is a tale of two people who met while working at McDonald’s, fell for each other and began a journey that has included three children. Daniels describes his unconditional love for Raquel yet also shares some of the challenging moments of their relationship.

“I want people to know that our relationship has had its problems,” he said. “The book talks about how we’ve been able to compromise and hear each other out. This is about both the good and bad of the past 12 years.”

Daniels wrote a chapter a day, yet thought his surprise was disrupted when he thought his wife was on to the fact she was being written about. 

“I was hesitant to tell her about it, but once she mentioned it, it gave me the extra fuel I needed to have the book written before our anniversary.

The Daniels describe June 10 as their anniversary despite the fact they were formally married on April 7, 2016.

“June 10 is when we started dating,” he said. “We choose to consider June 10 as our anniversary.”

“This is 271 pages of love,” added Daniels. “I want this book to not only be cherished by Raquel, but this book offers a sense of immortality for those who read it in the future. I want our grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on to be able to look at his book and see how much love was there between my wife and I.”