Abigail Charlotte Thornton

When I was five years old, I asked my mom why my middle name was Charlotte.

"You were named after three very important people," Mom said, "Abby-short for Abigail, that's Mrs. Stanton's name, Charlotte is your grandma's name, and Thornton was your daddy's last name."

By now, my five year-old self was confused.

"Grandma's name isn't Charlotte, it's Grace."

Mom smiled. She had such a pretty smile. "Grace is Grandma Thornton's name," she explained in her teacher voice. "She's my mom. Charlotte was your daddy's mom's name."

"But daddy's mom's name is Loraine." I was five years old, and if I knew anything, I knew who my grandmothers were.

"You're right." Mom said. She pulled out a piece of paper from her desk and reached for a pencil. "Let me tell you a story."

I liked stories, so I sat in her lap and watched as she started to draw stick figures.

"A long long time ago, I wanted to be a teacher." She drew herself in the simplest of forms; a triangle for a dress with hair, two arms and a face.

"I found a job here in Hope Valley, only then, it was called Coal Valley because instead of a saw mill, there was a coal mine ."

"What's a coal mine?" I asked.

"Coal is the black rocks they put in trains that helps them go. And in order to get the coal out of the mountain, men had to go in with shovels and picks before they could sell it to people."

She drew a mountain with a wooden box that looked like a door on the side.

"Oh!"

"Your daddy was a mountie."

She added a second stick figure.

"But mom!" I said, "My daddy is a carpenter."

Mom shook her head with a smile.

"Our last name now is-"

"Wilson." I said.

"Exactly," she continued, "Remember how when Sarah got married, her last named changed from Carter to White? Well, when I was a little girl, my name used to be Thatcher. When I married my first husband, Jack, I changed my name to Thornton. You are mine and Jack's baby. Ali and Christopher are mine and John's baby. Does that make sense."

I thought for a moment. "So John's not my daddy?"

"John is very much your daddy," she corrected me. "I was married to Jack a little while before you were born, but Jack died right around the time I found out I was going to have you."

"Jack...died?" Her little brown eyes saddened.

"Yeah," Mom said, "I was really sad for a long time. But then, learning that I was going to have you to remind me of him made me feel a lot happier."

"When did you marry my second daddy?" I asked.

"It's really hard to take care of a newborn by yourself. Even though I still missed Jack, I decided to marry James so you could grow up with both a mom and a dad."

"So, James is still my daddy?"

She hugged me, "Yes. James loves you just as much as he loves Levi and Ali. You are his little girl."

"Good," I said. "because I love daddy."