Sweet Annie

Anne is one of those names I have always liked, but never considered when thinking of names for my children. Ann, Anne, Annie. I like the sound, the simplicity of the name. I have friends who named their daughter Ann - Annie when she was little.

And I did name the doll I won in a raffle twenty-some years ago, Anne Elizabeth (Ann-e).

Sweet Annie is the name of an aromatic herb, Artemisia annua, also known as sweet wormwood and sweet sagewort. It is used a lot for dried arrangements and wreaths. I remember taking Mom to visit Howell's Tree Farm and Nursery west of Cumming and seeing half of the hay mow rafters draped in sheaves of drying sweet annie. The smell was heavenly.


There's also a Zac Brown Band song titled Sweet Annie.  ♪ Sweet Annie can I stay with you awhile 'cause this road's been putting miles on my heart? Sweetheart I've been livin' in a fantasy, but one day lightning will strike and my bark will lose its bite. But don't give up on me, Sweet Annie. ♪

Annie was the name of my heroine in that romance novel I never finished writing. Her name and the title of my book were influenced by another popular song at the time, John Denver's, Annie's Song. It is still one of the best love songs I've ever heard.

You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again

Come, let me love you
Let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter
Let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you
Let me always be with you
Come, let me love you
Come love me again

The deceased young wife and mother of the novel, Beth, was based on my own sister, Betty. I, of course, was Annie. About halfway through writing it, which I had been doing in first person, I decided it would be better if written in third person. I started writing it all over which resulted in my changing a lot of the story. I should have just kept writing it to the end and then edited and/or changed the point of view.

Perhaps I should dust off that old plot outline from so many years ago and give it another try. Not with any grandiose dream of ever publishing it, but just for my own satisfaction of finishing writing it. That and so I can say I didn't give up on Sweet Annie.