A Manor of Speaking

IN THE BEGINNING ... In l959 we received our ten-day old son, Trenton. I gave him the middle name of Doyle. David’s middle name was Moyle, his mother’s maiden name. I came up with the idea of using the D from David in place of the M. He became Trenton Doyle, TD for short. In 1961 our two-week old daughter Valerie arrived. My dearest friend Bea’s husband named Valerie after a friend in his youth that he greatly ad-mired, Valerie Halliburton, the sister of Richard Halliburton. Uncle Ralph, as we referred to him, did not live to see Valerie or to be her Godfather. He died one morning working in his rose garden. She never had a Godfather, but Auntie Bea was her Godmother. We named her Valerie Constance Petrie. Suddenly, one evening David announced that he wanted to change her name. “She should be named after you. We will change her name to Valerie Beth Petrie.” That accounts for the third finger on one hand. To find out the fourth finger, just continue to read.