Our second full day here T.J and I went with Jennifer (my daughter) to church. My other daughter had to work. T.J filled out one of those little visitor cards. I didn't fill one out because I have been to this particular church many times to speak about our work as well as to just worship.
Two days later the doorbell rang at the house and my father in law answered the door and stepped outside to talk to whoever it was. A few minutes later he came in with a puzzled look on his face and said there were people there from the church to see Tom Morrow and that he had told them Tom was in Africa. I laughed and said that they were actually there to see T.J (because of the little card he filled out) to welcome him to the neighborhood. T.J was named after his dad but has only ever gone by T.J. Now that he is all grown up we have to figure out what name he should go by to keep it all straight.
By the way, I thought I'd share how T.J got his name to begin with. Tom is named after his biological father and was eager to pass his name on to his first born son. I wasn't thrilled although I did understand the desire to pass on the family name. I just wasn't particularly fond of Thomas, Tom or Tommy as names*.
Then I remembered an anecdote that I had read years before:
A man and his wife celebrated the birth of their first child, a little girl. The wife turned to her husband all dewy eyed and said that she had always wanted to name her daughter Hilda**. The man was horrified and thought quickly. "That's lovely, dear", he said, "that was the name of my first girlfriend. I have such pleasant memories of that name." After a small pause the woman replied,"We'll name her Mary after my mother."***
I decided to try this tactic with my husband.
"What about calling our son T.J? I had a wonderful boyfriend by that name."
"Sounds good to me."
My husband has always been secure. I guess the joke was on me.
Happy April Fools Day!****
*Absolutely no offense was intended for anyone with the name of Tom, Thomas or Tommy.
**Again, so offense intended for anyone fortunate enough to have the name Hilda
***I do not know who the original author was of this story. I also had to rely on my memory and so may have taken a few creative licenses.
****The above is a true story and not an April Fools Day prank.
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That's hilarious! My son now calls himself by a crazy baby name we called him when he was younger- a name that would earn him mockery for life if he used it as a young man. I wonder how long it's going to be before he realizes it's not a very manly moniker and goes back to using his given name. :D
ReplyDeleteNow I'm curious about the nickname. :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Isn't it funny when, as clever as you are, it still backfires!?
ReplyDelete