Robert Munsch’s Soul-Rending Book ‘Love You Forever’ Has a Harrowing Real-Life Story Behind It

Illustration - Shutterstock

Children’s book author Robert Munsch claimed that the iconic, four-line verse from his bestselling book “Love You Forever” was once too painful to say out loud. For a long time, he couldn’t even utter them to his wife.

“It was my way of crying,” Munsch told HuffPost. But what was so troubling about the verse that has comforted so many and filled millions of hearts with love?

In Munsch’s bestselling book, a mother repeatedly shares a touching lullaby with her son. “I’ll love you forever,” she sings, “I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

The devoted mom says these sweet words to her son throughout the course of his life. As he grows, she sneaks into her son’s room, rocks him, and sings; even as a grown adult. Beautiful images by the illustrator Sheila McGraw detail these touching (and yes, sometimes a little break-and-enter) moments between the mother and her son.

At the end of the book, however, the roles are heart-rendingly reversed; it’s the son’s turn to cradle his ageing mother. He repeats the words he has heard his whole life back to the woman who loved him from day one.

These are not just the imaginings of a talented author, however. There’s a tragedy behind the refrain, and it has its roots in Munsch’s personal loss. Munsch, a Pittsburgh-born former teacher who lives in Ontario, Canada, shared the tragic circumstances around the book’s beginnings on his website.

Illustration - Pixabay | skalekar1992

“I had written it as a memorial for two stillborn babies we had in 1979 and 1980,” he shared, frankly. “The story actually started out as a song.

“The song was my song to my dead babies,” the author explained, as quoted by Yahoo. “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.”

“Love You Forever” was initially revealed to the world as an impromptu theater performance, but was quickly adopted by a publisher that was willing to take a gamble on the slightly controversial children’s story.

Robert Munsch signs an autograph for a young fan in Ontario, Canada, in 1997. ©Wikipedia | Markbellis

It worked. “It sold 30,000 copies in 1986,” Munsch shared, speaking of the beautiful book’s first year of publication, “and was the bestselling kid’s book in Canada that year.” “Love You Forever” has continued to warm the hearts and souls of multiple generations to this day.

“One day the publisher called up and said, ‘This is very strange,’” Munsch regaled to HuffPost. “‘It is selling very well in retirement communities,’ [...] ‘This is supposed to be a children’s book. What is going on?’”

“In fact, it turned out that parents buy it for grandparents, and grandparents buy it for parents, and kids buy it for everybody, and everybody buys it for kids,” Munsch explained.

“Love You Forever” is a timeless story written by one man, through his pain, for everybody. It is testament to the enduring nature of a parent’s love, and the magic imbued in the cycle of life. Do you own a copy?