What's In A Name?

Written so proudly
With a blue or red crayon;
The endearing art rendered
By a preschooler's hand...
So freely given; So eagerly received.
The bottom right corner, signed with your name...

Your driver's license;
And very first ticket...

A love letter...
Term paper...
Hastily written....

Your high school diploma;
Your college degree...

A wedding invitation;
With you as the groom...

Birth announcements;
Heralding a child...

The pride derived from watching your baby
Find his own way...

So passionately thought thru;
And anxiously discussed
Between the father;
And rapidly expanding mother.

Lovingly crafted for the baby inside her.
As they sit on the sofa, in gentle embrace;
These parents discuss this new life to discover...

Carefully designated, so proudly bestowed.

Of all of the dreams
And wishes for thee...

All of the places
We longed for your name to be...

Yet none of this will ever be;
As your beloved life
Was taken from me.

The life envisioned
Has been replaced;
The dreams for Liam Matthew
Forever held in place.

Your name will now forever be;
In the one place it should never see...
Eerily etched in granite block;
Denoting your eternal resting spot.

This granite monument now marks your name;
In a perfectly spaced designer font...
Not only signaling where your body lay;
But where our dreams for you are buried away.

For nothing can ever, ever replace
The handcrafted name
A crayon can create.
-Julie