At Age 8, Wendy Thomas Became the Face of a National Fast Food Chain. Years Later, Her Father Apologized (Exclusive)

Wendy Thomas Morse hasn’t always had it easy as the face of her father’s franchise.

Wendy was just 8 years old when her father, Dave Thomas, made the decision to name his hamburger restaurant after one of his five children. At the time, Dave never could have known how big Wendy’s would grow. For Wendy herself, she didn’t realize it until she went away to college.

“I mean, there were times I didn’t want people to know because I didn’t want them to have assumptions and like not… I guess my assumption was that they wouldn’t think I was cool or hip or whatever at the time,” she tells PEOPLE.

“But it was something I really took on as a responsibility and just was very proud. But I would never, if I met a lot of new people, I would never tell them who I was. It’s usually someone else that says it. And then it gets awkward and then it gets all better.”

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Despite her own hesitance, over the years, Wendy has found people are intrigued to discover she’s the “namesake” of the brand.

“I don’t know where their brains go, but I think they think that there’s a pot of gold behind that,” she laughs. “It’s a public company, of course, but I’m honored that I represent the brand and I try to represent it well.”

Wendy shares that although she’s learned to appreciate the connection to the restaurant over the years, her dad went on to regret the decision, to an extent.

“Probably 10 years before my dad passed, we talked about my name and namesake, and he just goes, ‘I’m really sorry I did that to you,’ which was really… to hear your father say, ‘Probably should just named it Dave’s and that’d been a lot easier,’ was a lot.”

“And I said, ‘Well, of course, but that’s a long time ago.’ But it was just nice to hear that he felt for me a little bit, like the pressure and the responsibility of being the namesake of a restaurant,” she continued.

“That was just a really cool moment for me and my dad. So it just keeps me going. And today, I look at the sign and I just see my dad. He always just wanted to serve quality hamburgers — fresh, never frozen beef — and just really good products and have customer service be friendly and have a clean restaurant. His philosophy was very simple. So now when I see the sign, I just think of my dad a lot because he’s there in spirit. That’s why we’re trying to do it Dave’s way, every day. I hope he knows that.”