Love You Forever

Love You Forever is a Canadian picture book written by Robert Munsch and published in 1986. I wasn't born in 1986, I was born in 1998 to a single mother who oddly had a collection of children's books from the 80's at her disposal. She read this book to me every night to the point where the phrase "Love You Forever" became a staple in our tiny household.

The story follows a little boy and his mother through out their lives. It starts with the mother holding her new born son singing a short song: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." and throughout his childhood, teenager years, and even adulthood, she would hold him and sing the song to him. The story takes a turn with the mother growing old and sick, trying to sing their song to the son but being too sick to do so. So, the son takes her into his arms and sings: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my Mommy you'll be." before she presumably passes. The story ends with the son taking his new born daughter into his arms, rocking her like his mother did to him and sining the same song to her.

Being a child, I didn't understand a lot of this story, I was three I just liked the pictures. Now, twenty-two with reading comprehension skills, I understand the story was about a mother's love. My mother and I have always had a special bond, due to it just being her and I for seven years before she met my father and had my sister, and I think Love You Forever was her way of telling a at the time three-year-old Lilah she'd always love me no matter what.

It's corny and cheesy, I know, but it holds a special place in my heart. I used to not be able to go to sleep unless she read me this story. I think she related to it in more ways than I did. I wasn't an easy child. I had temper tantrums, I screamed, I cried, I was mean when I didn't get what I wanted, I wasn't an easy kid especially for a single mother, and unknowingly I was just like the little boy in the story even after I stopped needed it to fall asleep at night.

If you thought I was a rough kid, I was an even rougher teenager. I would go out with kids I knew were bad news, yell and curse at my parents, and just overall wasn't easy, often making the household like a zoo, just like in the story. Even through all that, my mother still had it in her to tell me she loved me every night. She even kept the book in her office, right in front of her desk where she could see it. I didn't get it back then but I do now.

Now, at twenty-two, I'm forever grateful for the tale of Love You Forever and the unconditional love of a mother the book showcased. She'd never admit it, her pride often stops her from giving credit to anyone else, I think it taught my mother a lot as well. Serving as a play book of sorts for her, a vague one, but giving her the advice she needed at the time.

To finish the tale, it only feels right I tell the story to my children in the future, though that is very far down the line. I don't think I'll be as dramatic and sing the song to my mother in her old age nor cradle her, but I will tell it to my children nightly, hoping I can learn from it just as my mother did.