My Independence Day gift

Quite the Independence Day.
SLJ and I spent the entire day alone. No family, no friends just the two of us.
After a lazy morning, we decided to take a little trip to this little canal town along the Maumee River in NW Ohio. The downtown is quant with antique and gift shops. We browsed around the gift shops and later strolled along the scenic river path. It was a beautiful day and nice just being alone together. When we returned home we decided to catch a movie at the theater and ordered pizza to take home for dinner. We ate our pizza in bed while we watched TV. It was a calm, peaceful, beautiful day.
The highlight: As we were browsing through one of the gift shops in the canal town, a woman in her late 30'S-early 40's, passes by with her husband I presume, pats my arm and says "You're pretty" and walks on. I stumbled out an astonished, barely audible "Thank you." Tears instantly came to my eyes, but I had a huge smile. I couldn't speak for a few minutes for fear of crying but when I told SLJ what she had said he said "See, I'm right by popular vote."
It means so much to me when SLJ tells me I'm beautiful or that I'm "hot," it really does. But when a total stranger, a straight woman even, out of the blue, tells me I'm pretty... It meant the world. If only she knew what that meant to me. What a gift that was. It just kind of wrapped up that last shred of past verbal abuse and hugged it tightly till it disappeared.
Independence.
Healing and such a kind but simple thing to give and receive.
Happy Independence Day!