Wow. Just found this poem on a friend’s Facebook wall. Powerful and gentle at the same time.

I had a very dear and wonderful friend, after whom I named my daughter, who passed away when my daughter was just six months old. And my daughter’s middle name is from my maternal grandmother. Really, it’s a family name — it’s my mother’s middle name, too. My great grandmother started it all, though hers was slightly different.

Her name was Clara Pence (hmm…wonder what her middle name was… going to have to look that up when I get done here,) then her daughter, Clare Mae Pence Roper, then her daughter, Judi Clare Roper Burnett, and then my daughter, Samantha Clare Roberson.

One month after she was born, after I’d signed the birth certificate, I realized that I wanted her legal, full name to be Samantha Clare *Mae* Roberson. I was so disappointed I’d not thought of doing that a month before. It was one of those kick yourself in the butt moments. “Why didn’t I do that?! Ugh!”
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