Gone With Somethin' But It's Not The Wind

I'd like to introduce you to my family. I've been married to Mark for 20 years. He is the yin to my yang. He's logical and often unemotional. I wear "emotional" like a new perfume and logical...let's not go there. Mark likes adventure; I prefer cozy-ing up in my home. Mark loves to try new food; I order the same thing every time I go out-to-eat. He's a patient listener; I'm an avid talker. Mark is a techie; I'm technology-challenged. Mark is friendly; I am more reserved until I get to know you (then Mark and I switch roles.) He's funny on purpose (loves the puns!); I'm funny on accident. So besides the usual "opposites attract," we share a love of reading, cooking, learning and music. We make each other laugh and think - sometimes at the same time. He was and will always be my best friend. Plus, he's good looking! I'm a blessed woman!

Mark and I have four children. Our eldest is Ashley, a freshman away at a Christian University. Our only son, Rhett, is a sophomore in high school. Katie is in first grade and Tara is in kindergarten. The younger three I homeschool, as I did their older sister.

Gone With The Wind fans may recognize that my children’s names are characters in the book/movie. That was by accident until Tara came along. How do you do that by accident? Let me share…

We loved the name Elizabeth Ashley, but didn’t want anyone to shorten the name Elizabeth. So we just switched the order and Ashley got her name.

When we were expecting Rhett a friend of ours named their newborn son Reese. We found Reese in the baby name book and it said Rhett was the Welsh form of Reese. Hmm. We looked up Rhett and it meant enthusiastic. Rhett also sounded good with the family name of Anthony. We loved it and a truly enthusiastic son was born.

Eight and a half years later God gave us the gift of a baby girl. We had dear friends who had just named their little girl Katherine Grace. (Thank Goodness, our friends have good taste in names!) Katherine means pure and we felt it was fitting to name our late-in-life little blessing the same. In so many ways it was “pure grace” she was now in our family. We call her Katie, just like Gerald O’Hara called his daughter, “Katie Scarlet O’Hara…” Argh!

Fifteen months later another baby girl arrived. Between the two girls I sat with pen and paper and watched Gone With The Wind writing down each name so as to avoid naming my fourth child after a movie character. My husband began the appeals, “She’ll feel left out!” He suggested Melanie and call her Mel. That did not appeal. Other family members generously offered suggestions from the movie…Prissy, Pitty Pat or a combo of both. (Not going there “initial-wise.”) Then one day Mark said, “Just put it over the top and call her Tara.” I gave up my love of other non-GWTW names and Tara Victoria became the fourth classic-southern-movie-character-namesake of the family.

Movie or not, if you knew my kids, their names fit them perfectly. (Do we grow into our names? I wonder.) Ashley, Rhett, Katie & Tara – our four gifts from God.