A Mother's Heart Song

My grandmother and I at our local library

The Beatles said, "All you need is love" and honestly, I think they were onto something.

The sweet smell of fruity shampoo filled the room as my brother and I sat huddled together in our pajamas, enraptured by the vibrant tales my dad wove. His voice was soft but full of expression as he whispered about ninjas defeating villains and saving princesses. By no means was he a professional story teller but his stories filled our imaginations with wonder and awe.

My childhood was built up of stories. Twice a week we patiently listened to our local librarian’s lively voice, whose tales inspired us to feverishly pick out as many picture books as our toddler arms could carry. Some of my most treasured memories are of snuggling up against my mother while she read the short story, Love you Forever by Robert Munsch to us. She’d quietly sing the repetitive words, 

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”.

 As the youngest child in my family, I always thought those lyrics were written for me. However, I recently learned that Robert Munsch wrote those lyrics to two of his babies who were born dead. He said, “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.”

When I read Munsch’s words, they really touched me. I felt enormous amounts of sympathy and I wasn’t sure why. I haven’t had anyone close to me pass away, I haven’t had children so I don’t know what it’s like to lose a child that you’ve carried for months only to have them born lifeless. But I soon realized, we all know what it’s like to be loved. And I’m not talking about the kind of love where your high school boyfriend says, “I love you”, and you panic and say it back only to avoid the awkwardness that would soon follow had you not repeated those three, not so little, words. I’m talking about the love that comes from your parents, your siblings, your friends, and I’m assuming, your spouse. Love is shown in our actions, and Robert Munsch demonstrates this in his children’s book, “Love You Forever”.

The various stages of Munsch’s book symbolizes the circle of life. With a very simple format he begins with a young mother rocking her newborn child, singing the lyrics, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” When I read these words I think of how scared she must have been, but like many mothers she just took it one day at a time. I imagine her like my sister, holding her young baby while her husband was away at the police academy, and wondering how she was going to do it all. But life moves on whether or not you’re ready and Munsch’s novel demonstrates this when with a flip of a page you’re reading of a toddler terrorizing the house, flushing watches and destroying furniture. With each new age of the boy Munsch writes, “and he grew and he grew and he grew.” These repetitive words are added to emphasize the fact that inevitably we all grow, physically and emotionally. 

 Munsch’s book then progresses through the life of the boy, and while everything in his life is changing, the constant is his mother’s song and her love.

Eventually Munsch progresses far enough into the boy’s life that he is a married father who sings, not only to his own newborn babe, but also to his elderly mother. Munsch’s book is built up of imaginative characters, however they represent all of us. All of our families took on different shapes, but each and every one of us had someone who loved us continuously despite our craziness and our flaws. Even when I yelled at my mother as a teenager, she loved me. Despite my death-like glares throughout high school, she loved me. We all have love in our lives. I think it’s our duty and our privilege  to repay that love to all. My parents aren’t old enough for me to pick them up and sing to them, but I think the day will come that they will depend on me as I once depended on them. Munsch emphasizes this important theme of love with the repeating lyrics, the mother’s heart song, on each page.

To provide some historical context, when Munsch first published this book, they couldn’t identify any specific demographics that were purchasing it. Grandparents were buying it for their children and grandchildren, children were buying it for parents, parents were buying it for new mothers, etc. Robert Munsch soon came to realize that this lack of demographic was because everyone could relate to his book. It was a children’s book that prioritized family and love; something we all need and want in our lives. 

Reading Munsch’s book not only makes me grateful for my own parents who loved me in all my stages of life, but it teaches and reminds me of the love I’ll need to remember to have for my own children someday. Munsch’s book I believe teaches an important lesson to love everyone, despite their flaws and throughout their different stages. Their stages might not be the various ages that Munsch portrays in his novel, but they are the stages of emotion and life that we all experience.

Munsch’s novel may be a simple picture book about a mother and her growing child, however it teaches principles about life to all of us. Through simple imagery and easily understood words he symbolizes the love we all strive to receive and give in our lives. Munsch’s book catches the attention of all ages with its principles of love and forgiveness.

My childhood was surrounded by craziness but the one major constant is that I always knew I was loved. Munsch’s words,“I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be”, are lyrics that stick with us forever, and for me are a constant reminder that I am loved.