The other night I was lying in bed unable to sleep. The people above me were being too loud and there were others talking in the hallway even if it was way past quiet hours. For some reason, the song Love You Forever came to my head. As I repeated the song over and over again I was finally able to fall asleep.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, Love You Forever is a popular children's book that was originally a song written by the author. The book chronicles the life of a little boy from infancy to adulthood and how he grew throughout the years. The boy's mother would sneak into his room every single night and recite the Love You Forever song. And when the mother gets too old to sneak into her grown son's house, he goes to her and recited the poem to her.
I grew up reading this book what feels like almost every night. My mom would read it to me before bed and I would always laugh at the part where the toddler would throw his moms watch into the toilet. Throughout the years even though my mom and I weren’t reading the book she would still recite the song,
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
It’s something that has just stuck with me through the years and is a special bond that I have with my mom. Anytime I come across those words in my everyday life, whether it be through social media or somebody bringing it up in conversation, it feels like my mom is with me and not an hour and a half away.
I remember asking my mom once if she came into my room at night like the mom in the book. She replied that she did so every night. So, as I’m laying in my bed in my college dorm unable to sleep, I conjured up this image of my mom driving to Delaware with a ladder attached to the car and parking behind my building and climbing to my window just to sing the song to me.
It made me laugh at first thinking of my mother climbing up a ladder to check on me. Then it made me feel comforted because I knew if I really asked her to do it, she would (and love every second of it). It’s weird how even now that I’m away at college this still comes back to me, and I get flashbacks to when I was little and reading this together.
Love You Forever was a special part of my childhood. My mom and I bonded over something that had such a great meaning behind it, and at certain points when I’ve been away from home the song has helped me remember that my mom is always there for whatever I may need.
So to my mom:
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my mommy you’ll be.”
