A Dahlia, by any other name...

While on our freeway drive to Seattle this past Thursday, we were chatting about what our new dog's middle name would be. We were trying to come up with a name that went well with Maggie, because that was pretty much the name we all decided on as a family. We were having a bit of a mental block, so I started paying attention to the cars passing by and would joke..."Navigator? Lincoln? Rav4? Odyssey (taken)? Sonata?" "Moonlight Sonata? hahahaha..." I guess I should explain the humor in that....

For the past 10 years every time moonlight or pretty colors or dahlias or awards would come up, we'd giggle and have a nice little memory of the sweet couple who did our wedding flowers. When we were planning our wedding, I knew I wanted dahlias for our flowers. I had very fond memories of Grandma's dahlia garden, so she pointed me in the direction of some friends of hers that still was very much involved in the dahlia community. When we met with the Wynne's, there was much talk of the prize winning dahlia they created and actually registered Wyn's Moonlight Sonata.  A very pretty flower indeed.



So, Jason says "I actually really like that name. Sunny was one of the names on our original short list!" But, I was just kidding. I really liked the name Maggie much better than Sunny, or in this case, Sonny. But he really wanted it to still be in the running, so I agreed to that much.

We had a great weekend and even asked some friends for middle name suggestions.

Then we get home, and Grandma calls to tell me the awful news that the husband of the dahlia couple, Walt, had passed away in a house fire this last weekend. When I got off the phone and told Jason, he commented on how it was really weird that we would have been considering naming our new puppy after one of their great accomplishments. I got chills and called the kids down, told them the whole story and the sad news that went along with it, then asked if they would like to change her name. They very excitedly agreed, so we have a set-in-stone name for her now. Moonlight Sonata "Sonny" Dahlstrom.

Grandma called me again today to let me know that she had read in the paper that the Wynnes had lost all their dahlia tubers in the fire. I surely hope that she is able to get starts from people and that someone, somewhere, has one of her special Moonlight Sonatas to give back to her.