and they had determined that the child should not be named until after it was born, so that they could meet it and make the name based on that first magical moment. On the day of the birth, a beautiful baby girl was born and the parents were instantly smitten.
“It’s ‘Love.'” said the mother. “All I can think when I gaze on this precious child is ‘Love.’ That needs to be her name.”
The father was not on board. “We can’t name her ‘Love’! That sort of name will cause a world of problems for her down the road. How about a ‘Jessica’ or a ‘Jane’?”
And the two parents fought. During a break in the fighting, the father went out to go to the bathroom, during which time a nurse came into the room and the mother added the name “Love” to the birth certificate. When the Dad learned about this, he was upset, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Resigned, he reasoned that he would love his daughter regardless of the name.
The first few years of the child’s life were pure bliss. However, she came home from her first day of Kindergarten with tears streaming down her cheeks. When the parents asked what was wrong, Love said through her sobs, “Th-the other kids at school! They (sniff) they wouldn’t st-stop laughing at my name! (breaks down)” The mother and father did their best to console Love, telling her that things would change over time.
But they didn’t change for the better. The classmates only became more cruel with time. The taunting becaame merciless throughout elementary school, with Junior High becoming unbearable. Love’s grades suffered and she withdrew into isolation. High School was Hell on earth for the girl, with the cliquishness of High School bearing down on her every sad day of her life.
One night as dinner was being prepared, Love came into the kitchen, silently placed a sad kiss on her father’s forehead, cast a piercing glare at her mother, and walked back to her room. While the puzzled parents wer looking at each other as if to say, “What was that all about?” they heard a terrible noise from Love’s room — a loud BLAM followed by a thudding to the floor.
As they feared, they raced into Love’s room to see the teenager clutching a pistol in her hand, with the self-inflicted wound pumping blood out of her chest. Following a brief period of denial where they couldn’t accept what was unfolding, anger set in for the father. He bitterly turned to his wife and yelled at her:
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! Darlin’, you gave Love a bad name!!!”
