Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
With Valentine’s Day coming up, here’s a story of Love.
Actually, it begins on Mother’s Day five years ago.
“He gave me a card that Mother’s Day and as soon as I read it, I started crying,” Laura Love said of her youngest son, Loudon, who was then a senior at Geneva Community High School in Illinois. “He said he wanted to honor me by changing his name. He wanted his last name to be Love.”
At the time he was Loudon Vollbrecht. That last name belonged to his dad, whose marriage to Laura had ended when Loudon was 10.
“I was crying and didn’t know what to say,” remembered Laura. “I was like…'If you’re sure….If you’re sure.’
“He said he was absolutely sure and had told me that very beautifully right there in the card.”
His parents’ split had been tough on Loudon, who was a kind and sensitive kid.
