The story behind "Love You Forever" warning: loss mentioned

[amberlyrose]

This makes me love this book so much more. There is loss mentioned, so don't go further if it upsets you.

“I’ll love you forever,

I’ll like you for always,

as long as I’m living

my baby you’ll be.”



You’ll probably recognize those words from Robert Munsch’s children’s book, Love You Forever. It’s among the best-selling kids’ books of all time, but it still tends to provoke very different responses among parents. Depending on who you talk to, it’s either either a touching account of a mother’s unending love or the ultimate example of helicopter parenting gone bad.




I admit I have always subscribed to that latter category. It pains me to say it, because I love Mr. Munsch’s books. Mud Puddle, Mortimer, The Paperback Princess, Smelly Socks, Stephanie’s Ponytail, Too Much Stuff: There are well-worn copies of each of them on my daughters’ bookshelf. But while we own a copy of Love You Forever – who doesn’t? – I’ve always found the story to be a little bit creepy.



To recap, the book begins with a mother rocking her newborn baby, singing that now-familiar song as he drifts off to sleep. From there the baby grows into a trouble-making toddler, a caked-in-dirt little boy, a sulky teenager and, eventually, a husband and father with a baby of his own. Through it all, every night, even after he’s moved into his own home, his mother sneaks into his bedroom, pulls him from bed and rocks him while she sings him their song.



I’ve read Love You Forever dozens of times over the years, but today I learned the story behind the book: It was originally written as a song for the author’s two stillborn babies.



As Mr. Munsch writes on his web site:



“I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was very strange having a song in my head that I couldn’t sing.



For a long time it was just a song but one day, while telling stories at a big theatre at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a story around the song.



Out popped Love You Forever, pretty much the way it is in the book.”



Thanks to that book, countless parents have sung that song to their own children, in different countries and different languages, in different tunes and styles. Here is how it sounds to Mr. Munsch:





After learning the story behind the story, I’m finding it hard to stay cynical. I read Love You Forever again this morning and saw it in a new light. Not as the tale of a mother who just can’t let go, but as a testament to the love that persists beyond time and space, and an ode to those parents who never had the chance to rock their babies.



And for the first time, when I read Love You Forever today, I cried.

[azurely]

That book already makes me cry, but knowing the story behind it is heartbreaking, especially since we're dealing with IF and have had three miscarriages.

[cleo29]

wow and so sad about the author's loss.

[ZoeHart]

This story has always made me cry and I feel weepy just reading this. Off to look at cute puppy pics!

[vicky]

Noooo.

[Deleted]

Sofia digs that book out and makes me read it every so often and I cry every time. Now I'll bawl.

[bornbaker]

I can't read this book to Emily. When she was a month old I had H read it to her while I held her and I bawled. I still do - just thinking about it!

[cinnamoncox]

OMG

I ordered this book from my girls (3.5) scholastic book order form knowing exactly nothing about it (it was like 2 bucks).
The first time I read it to them I sobbed like a pathetic mess. I was like wtf kinda book description doesn't warn a bitch?
The girls would always ask me to read it and I've read it to them probably twenty times and I cry each time, without exception.

The next time I read it, knowing the history, it's going to be so much worse.
The girls go to my h and say mama needs a tissue the old lady made her cry again (((

[MrsAxilla]

I got that book as a gift and sobbed my heart out the first time I read it to my baby.

[justcallmekhaleesi]

Oh my gosh. So sad.

[dizzydee]

My mom got A this book for his first X-mas. It's her favorite book and we've always made fun of her for it, she cries every time she reads it. I've always disliked it and found it creepy. A couple weeks after we got it I opened the cover and found that my mom had written a note to A on the inside cover, telling him how much she loves him and the book. So now I read it to him and cry, it's a vicious cycle.

[jennistarr1]

Something always seemed to not sit well with me with these words

[gullterre15]

Thanks for sharing this! I love knowing this new background.

[moolarkey]

I have that book and so do both of my kids. I first learned of it when a pastor at church used it as the basis for his Mother's Day sermon.