Dear Abbey Road Herron,

I’ve been thinking about a unique way to tell you what a miracle you are and what an inspiration you are to Mommy and me.  I’ve been wrestling with a way to convey why we named you after an album to ensure that when you are 25 you don’t just tell people who your Dad was a big Beatles fan and general weirdo.  I mean I AM a weirdo, but not like Chris Martin weirdo.  I mean who names their kid Apple?  Really?

For me that album was something that helped me get through the loss of your sister.  I have always expressed my emotions through music.  Not writing or playing music, that would require a talent that I just don’t have.  No, I listen to music.  If I’m in a crappy mood I tend to wallow in it.  I throw on some Staind, Metallica or some Gary Allan and just kind of immerse myself into a cocoon of  misery.  They can seem to convey exactly how I’m feeling and it’s kind of nice to know that someone else was feeling what I feel at that moment.  And I did a lot of this after we lost your sister.  Wallowed, agonized, hurt.

But The Beatles came to the rescue.  Specifically the album, Abbey Road.  Even more specifically the song, Here Comes the Sun.  Like a rescue diver that song and album single-handedly pulled me from the abyss of my own self pity that I had been drowning in.  Here Comes the Sun, was written by George Harrison while playing hooky from work at Eric Clapton’s house.  He sat in Eric’s garden and almost effortlessly belted out the one song that could make me smile even in my darkest hour.  The only song that I could find any hope and salvation in.  The only song that would allow me to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s all right, It’s all right”…..

It’s not lost on me all the symmetry either.  Abbey Road was created in probably the most turbulent time for The Beatles.  They were in the middle of doing a documentary for the Let it Be Album that was going disastrously.  The whole band was starting to feel the pressure of being business men and musicians plus most of them were in relationships that were pulling them in different directions and on top of all that they were still trying to deal with the fact that their manager had died and they needed to replace him somehow.  And despite all that swirling around them, they were still able to record and produce one of the greatest albums of all time.

Much like you, my sweet angel.  You were conceived as soon as the Doctors gave us the thumbs up to try again.  Despite not completely being over the loss of your sister and still trying to find ways to cope and deal with that loss, we got the biggest boost we could imagine, you.  Not that we will ever forget Hope, or minimize her significance in our lives, but I think we needed you, a healthy you to help us get over that.  To help us mend.  To help us know that ….

It’s all right.

Abbey Road also has a wonderful combination of songs that seem to capture all the aspects of The Beatles that any fan would love.  Something, also a George Harrison song, might be one of the greatest love songs that The Beatles ever recorded.  It’s more mature than their early love songs that ring more true to infatuation songs considering how young they were when they wrote those songs.  Octopus’ Garden is a little goofy and maybe even a little trippy.  A light-hearted song at a time when light-hearted was exactly what they needed.  It’s something that you would have expected to find on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.  Oh Darling! and Come Together give all the rock fans something to be happy about on the album as well.  Both have a bluesy-rock feel to them, but are still the strongest songs on the album to be sure.  And lastly there is the medley ( You Never Give Your Money Away through The End).  Something innovative and creative, something different.  Almost the entire second side of Abbey Road is like a stream of conscientiousness that takes you all the way, appropriately, to The End, which includes the only drum solo that Ringo ever had.

This is my hope for you.  That you can encompass so many different traits and emotions that you will be able to shine no matter what life throws at you.  Like any hopeful parent I want you to be the best version of you.  The Beatles were able to put away all the crap and do what they really loved doing, making music, one last time and in doing so created something beautiful and timeless.  I just hope that your mother and I are as lucky with you!

And lastly, something that is very close to my heart.  I wanted you to be unique.  I was named after my father, which is a great honor, knowing the man who your grandfather is.  But let’s face it, George Robert Herron II isn’t exactly a unique name!  I just want you to be special, I mean you already are to me and your mother obviously, but I wanted you to have a sense of uniqueness right out of the box.

My fear is that when you are in your teens and hate my music and hate just about any opinion that comes out of my mouth that you will hate your name too.  But on the flip side I hope you get enough of your mothers positive disposition and enough of my weirdness that you love your name and realize the power that your name has.  I want you to own the name and make it yours.  Make sure that people know that there was no way you could have had any other name.

You’re not here yet, but already the excitement is too much to handle.  You have a big name to live up to little girl, but given your pedigree you will surpass every expectation and keep shining as my little light at the end of the tunnel.

And I hope that one day you will understand, I write stuff like this down, because I am much better expressing my feelings on paper than face to face.  I don’t think it’s an intimacy issue, I think it is a my brain just functions better when I can have a stream of thought and capture it.  Like a picture with words.  Regardless I love you already.  Hurry up and get here!