What's in a Name?

What's in a Name?

B. Evans Hudson

Stranger; that's what Barbara translates to. At the thoughtless age of eleven I decided to educate my grandmother.

"No dear," she said, "it means beautiful flower."

She was wrong, so I decided to argue with the woman who had carried the name far longer than I. Her tenacity was infuriating. At the end of my argumentative rope I produced the book that proved I was right. I stabbed at the word 'stranger' for emphasis. She glanced at it briefly.

"It must mean beautiful stranger," she said; and she left.

It took me two decades to realize she was right.