The Truth Behind Everyone's Favorite Kid's Book Will Absolutely Break Your Heart

"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." Everyone knows this story and is likely in tears by the end, but do you know the inspiration behind it? It's a heartbreaking story that the author Robert Munsch shared on his website.

Munsch says that this story actually started as a song. "For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn't even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried." He kept it to himself for years, but why was the song so upsetting?

"I made that up after my wide and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies." He explained. The stillborn babies inspired Munsch to write what he considers to be his best book.

His usual children's book publisher rejected the book because it didn't seem as though it was for kids. He found another publisher and suddenly the book took on a life of its own.

"One day the publisher called up and said 'This is very strange. It is selling very well in retirement communities in Arizona. It is selling in retirement communities where kids are illegal. This is supposed to be a children’s book. What is going on?'" Munsch realized that adults were buying this book for other adults.

He said that "Parents buy it for grandparents and grandparents buy it for parents and kids buy it for everybody and everybody buys it for kids." Did you have a copy in your home? I know I did, as did everyone else I knew.

Did your parents read this to you when you were young? Did they have their own tune they would sing the song to?

Share with your parents to remind them that you'll love them forever.