I Love You Forever

A friend gave me a book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch in 2000. It's a small and thin book, looks like a children's book. I was told the story by the husband before he realized that his wife had set that book for my birthday gift.

Actually, it is a parent-and-child book. It goes through the major phases of a man's (yes, a literal human male specimen) - birth and infancy, two years, 9 years, teen-age years, young adulthood, to "maturity." All throughout these stages, at regular points, the mother would go to her sleeping son and sing these phrases to him:
"I love you forever, I like you for always, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

My son was just two years old then. I made a melody for the lyrics and sang it to him until he himself learned the song and we'd sing it together during our bonding moments. When was in Grade 1, he claimed that the book was among his favorites. He learned to read his letters before 2 and read sentences and phrases and short children's stories by 3.

I've photocopied that book and shared it with many parents. It was a happy surprise to me when that book was discussed and shared at a parents' meeting in my son's school when he was 9 years old and in grade 4. we talked about it as like a guide to us parents, especially the mothers since the characters were a mother and a son. We look at it as something to prepare us for what will lie ahead for us with our children, the phases they will go through, generally. or so i thought.

until i had a flu which lasted for 3 days. when my son kissed me good morning he felt i was hot and with a worried exclamation, asked if i had taken medications. thereafter, he took it upon himself to check on me every so often until the fever had subsided. then i remembered a time he wasn't yet 3. when he climbed up the stairs to our room and saw me sprawled on a rug on the floor, lights off, all the fans on. i had a migraine and asked him to be as quiet as possible. you know - cool, quiet, dim place, to ease the pain. he crawled up to me, cradled me in his lap and caressed my hair and face. and felt my tears. "mommy, you're crying? don't cry mommy. don't cry" and then started singing and saying, "lullabye, and goodnight, go to bed now... don't cry mommy...close your eyes, start to yawn... mommy don't cry... i love you mommy." which mother do you think wouldn't cry harder!!!

the book ends with the mother calling the son to visit her because she's too old to go across town to visit him. he finds her frail now and he rocks her in his lap,the way she did to him when he was younger, singing to her "i love you forever, i like you for always, as long as i'm living, my mommy you'll be". then he leaves her asleep and goes home, goes up to the nursery, picks up his own baby and croons to her the song sang to him by his mother.

it's taken me some time to complete this article. i had to stop now and then. reflecting, going back to those times with my son, from his infancy to now. crying sometimes.

it's really true. we reap what we sow. several times, in his 12 years, my son has treated me, talked to me, cared for me, in exactly the same way i did him. and the song's lyrics and our discussions on it have remained deep inside his heart.

he's now entering the difficult adolescent years. we're beginning to clash every so often. but, after the walking-away-in-a-huff he comes up to me, hugs me from behind or just gives me a quick kiss. as if to say, he understood. and that we're still okay. whatever happens, he knows that i like him, as a person, and i love him, as my son, forever.