‘Love You Forever’ Author Says Book Was Originally A Song For His Two Stillborn Babies

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFX6pdwJWpA

 

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

You probably recognize those words from Robert Munsch’s famous children’s book, Love You Forever. It turns out the book was originally a song written by Munsch for his two still-born children and grieving wife.

The book tells the story of a baby who’s mother puts him to bed each night as he gradually grows in to an adult and finds himself putting his mother to bed as an old woman.

“I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. 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.

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For a long time it was just a song, but one day, while telling stories at a big theater at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a sory around the song. Out popped Love You Forever pretty much the way it is in the book.” Munsch said on his website.

The story went on to be considered one of the most popular children’s books of all time.