A few have been asking me why we are naming our daughter (wow that still feels weird to say) after my cousin. I decided to tell you all the story behind not only our daughter's name but mine also. I may not get all the details right but the basic facts will be there. Family of mine feel free to correct any errors in my story.
A lot of people don't know that my Dad has an older sister. April Dianne Chisum Bently. She passed away December of 1980 from a heart embolizom. At the time she was pregnant with a little girl and was at the end of her third trimester. Thanks to medical advances this rarly happens anymore to pregnant women. She left behind a young son and a husband. The baby was a girl and was named Dara Lynn Bently. She survived with the aid of life support for a day or two. I don't remember the exact length of time. Over the years I have loved picking people's brains about my Aunt. Everyone says that she was loved by all, an easy person to get along with, fun, and everyone says she was so gullable. Fast forward four years and I arrive on February 24,1984. This is significant because this was also my Aunt April's birth date. Hence my name. Only my middle name is different. Growing up I loved hearing stories about my Aunt. No one had a bad thing to say about her. I always wanted to be like her, or at least strive to have the same reputation that she had (well except minus the gullable part maybe). I hope that people can talk about me someday the way everyone talks about her. I have alway said that if I ever had a daughter I would love to name her after my Aunt's daughter. I am very sintamental that way. We have changed it a bit. When Shawn and I found out that I was pregnant we had already decided if it was a girl to use the name Dara Lynn. This was also the case the preveouse two times I was pregnant before we knew what we were having. If this baby was a boy I wanted to name him Landon Aurther (the middle name being after my uncle in Cali). Shawn wasn't so sure about the Landon part. Anyway when we found out that this baby was a girl we decided to use the name as a full name instead of a first and middle. There was two reasons for this. One: whenever anyone in my family talked about Dara no one called her Dara, everyone called her Dara Lynn. Because of this I didn't realize for years that the names were seperated and ended up liking it as one name better. Then second reason being my sister has a daughter named Tara and if we had a Dara then things could get confusing when we were all together. All that to say our daughter's name will be DaraLynn Rose Tarwater. We love it. I am going to capitalize the L in the middle. That was not a type-o. If others don't write it like that I will not hold it against them but that's the way it will be on her birth certificat and that's how I will always write it.
Anyway now you all know the story behind the name. Or should I say names.
Ape
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thats how RaeLynn's name is too ( i mean with the capital L in the middle)... Very interesting story. I am so excited for you
ReplyDeleteI think you got it pretty much right. At least as far as I know! You're right, it could get a bit interesting with a Dara and Tara. I've been telling Tara she's going to get a new cousin and her name will be DaraLynn, and she says hey, that's like my name! I have always thought it was a beautiful name, can't wait to meet her!
ReplyDeleteJust one teeny correction...Bently is spelled with and e. (Bentley) Anyway...About your Aunt April...If one could be allowed to have favorites...she was a favorite cousin of mine. Even though she was 12 years older than me, she was always kind. I never remember her being mean or putting me down. She would take us on walks and buy us fudgecicles from the liquor store. A fun cousin. And yeah, you're right about her being gullible. Have your dad tell you about her going "snipe" hunting at campout! Love the baby name. So sweet that you were thinking of naming a boy after Art. He'll be so pleased. Even though it's not happening. :)
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