This is my dad: Charlie Walter Neely
Long before he knew I would be his little girl
and make him the center of my world
Long before he knew I would drift from the sky
and become know as Charliesbutterfly
Before changing the
author name of every post to my name, Vanessa Neely, my posts were originally
signed as Charliesbutterfly. A name given to me posthumously by my dad. How you
may ask did he do that! I was and am an avid music lover. Back in the day of
message boards I frequented a lot of music boards. My screenname was always “soulfulbutterfly”.
One day as I was trying
to sign on to a new board, I couldn’t get in with soulfulbutterfly; they kept
suggesting different names, I didn’t like any of their suggestions and persisted
with different variations of my name to no avail. Finally, in exasperation I looked
over at my dad’s picture (not the one above, a more recent one) and said, “daddy that won’t let me be soulfulbutterfly”;
in his smile I heard him say you’re my butterfly. I turned back to my computer
and typed Charliesbutterfly, immediately the board opened up with confetti and
a big welcome to… whatever the board was named. From that point on my name was Charliesbutterfly,
not just my screenname but my email addresses and my camp name at Girl Scout
camp. I loved being Charliesbutterfly.
Why was this so special…my dad was
special. He was tragically killed in 2001 by a neighbor suffering from
dementia. As I mentioned earlier, he was the center of my world. Losing him was
devastating, having his name be a part of my world kept him close to me.
I change the name now as
I want to grow professionally in writing. I can’t keep using my dad’s name and
be recognized for who I am. He taught me a lot, and loved me even more, now I have
to release him and let him go…so I relinquish the handle I love to use and use
the name that people may search for if I want to be found in the world of
professional writing.
ADDENDUM: Since my first writing of this post I have changed the name back to "Charlie's Place for Writing". Why...it just felt right...
