Emma and I have been friends since high school.
We’re both 26, and we both got pregnant in June last year. I was overjoyed; it felt like a blessing to prepare for the journey of motherhood right along with my best friend.
The moment I found out I was having a boy, I knew I was going to call him Evander. The name sounded unique and uncommon, yet practical because we could shorten it to “Evan”. Most of all, the name was extra special because it’s my husband’s name.
But life had prepared a horrible twist for us. Sadly, my baby was stillborn. Then four days later, Emma gave birth to a healthy boy.
My world turned upside down when Emma visited me days later with her baby boy and dropped a bombshell. She told me she named her son Evander.
From the start, Emma knew I always wanted to name my son Evander, like his dad.
Moreover, it felt more than disrespectful to my baby’s memory that she stole my baby’s name.
I got furious and confronted her, asking, “Why would you copy my stillborn’s name? And of all names, that name is my husband’s. Couldn’t you have chosen a different one?”
She declared, “Your husband and I have known each other since kindergarten. Plus, the name doesn’t belong to him alone.”
She added, “Your trauma is not my problem, I can’t let it control me.”
I knew that our friendship could never survive a situation as horrible as this, and that was the last time I’d be seeing her.
Do you think I overreacted?
