This reminds me of the time we lost my wife's stuffed panda (my first St. Valentine's Day gift to her) on the way to visit my parents in Omaha. So I called the customer service line and made sure a new panda was sent. They didn't even make us pay for it.
So we decided that Mr. Panda hopped a plane to Jacksonville to party with the other Spring-Breakers. And now he has a blog: http://thehappypanda.blogspot.com.
Anyway, I hope your son doesn't find growing up too painful. And that his parents enjoy their new home (imagine a smiley face, since I never do them).
Wow. How sad, how poignant, but how very well done Mum.
This is heartbreaking. My daughter left Eliza Dulemy Patricia (a cream-colored bear) on the plane to Omaha when she was 4. We still speak of EDP fondly and with a sense of Tragic Loss.
(Airplanes to Omaha seem to be the Bermuda Triangle of stuffed bears.) Maybe now would be a good time to re-read some Winnie the Pooh. Privately of course. xox Kay
Oy. Your words made me cry. How very well written. Good luck helping your son cope with this loss and all the changes happening right now. I wish Kitty all the best on her new adventure too!
Diane
Oh, dear, I'm tearing up, and gonna be damn sure one rabbit I know makes its way 13 blocks west next month, because the Wee C, she is still just 4 ~
Anne, you've reduced me to tears. Of course, I'm in a fragile emotional state what with baby newly home and that dagger of a deadline hanging over me and this unrelenting humidity... but you've done it again. Your words and how you arrange them are simply magical.
My heart goes out to the child. And to Kitty, wherever she may be. Bless her for her love and care over the years, and for this final gift.
So beautiful, and so sad. I wish you luck and strength during the end of this change.
As you say, you can find the treasure in the tragedy by helping your child learn to deal with loss, but it still is an enormous ache in everyone's heart.
Reminds me of a story I read once where a mother discovered that her son's teddy bear was In Very Bad Shape Indeed. The mother wanted to throw the teddy away, or trade it for an identical but newer teddy, but she couldn't get it away from the son long enough. The mother's solution was to buy an identical teddy, to take the original teddy every night when the boy was asleep, and replace one piece of it at a time, one arm, another arm, one leg, another leg, until she had created a whole brand new teddy and Little Boy did not have to suffer any trauma. I thought it was a sweet and clever story.
Also, when I get home from work tonight, I'm going to make a point of visiting my big basket of stuffed animals, some of which are from my childhood, some from my late brother's childhood, some from my late mother's childhood--and make sure every animal in the basket knows how much it is loved...
*sniff, sniff*
With all this emotion, I'm bound to explode. Thankfully, while the goo is dripping off the walls, I will be snuggling dearly to my teddy bear, ever-so-grateful that I still have him. The other major animals (including my three ostrich-es) are keeping the car safe while shi recovers.
Yeah, it made me cry, too.
I still have a lot of the "critters" from my childhood; I often look at them and wonder, should I continue to hang on to these? Will it look too odd when I'm 40, when I'm 60?
But I think of giving them away or getting rid of them and I can't do it. In particular, one critter who goes by the name of Conrad - I suppose some day he will probably disintegrate totally, being as he is made mostly of felt, and that is how I will lose him, but I could not bear to part with him in any other (more calculating) way.
What is it that C.S. Lewis said about "children's" books - that there's a time that you think you've outgrown them, but then when you become even more mature, you realize you didn't, after all?
My boyfriend joked about throwing my bear, Homer, out the car window on the drive back from Minneapolis.
I nearly pulled the car over on I-80 and killed him.
The bear stayed.
The boyfriend lived.
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