Happy Birthday, Lucy Bear!

I take up my laptop to record a very special--if not downright miraculous--event, which occurred exactly one year ago today.

Mind you, October 18th, 2010 was perhaps one of the worst days of my adult life, but what happened in the evening...well, it made up for all the *blech* I'd endured up to that point. For the curious, in a nutshell, I was called for jury selection, forgot about it the day of until around the time I was supposed to be at the courthouse, arrived a nervous wreck...but by God's mercy I wasn't even chosen. My number never got called. Not even when several people had to be excused for various and sundry (valid) reasons. PTL! Then there was some disagreement between the parties involved, which had to be resolved before anyone could go home, so the thing drug out pretty much all day. But at the end of it all, the judge had selected the jury, then he turned to the rest of us and said the most wonderful words I'd ever heard:

"You're excused for two years."

*Cue Hallelujah Chorus*

When Peter brought me home (Mom was teaching at that time), there was this big box on the front porch. A box from Grandma, addressed to me! Now, Mom had hinted that Grandma was sending me something, and I had this crazy hope of what it might be, but of course I didn't dare encourage that hope. Oh, no. That was too far-out....
So on that evening--October 18th, 2010--after Mom got home from school, I opened the box. Oh. My. WORD! There she was--Lucy Bear, my favorite bear in Grandma's collection (and Grandma's), with whom I used to play as a little girl (and not-so-little :-P). You may imagine my surprise and delight-- after all, Lucy was Grandma's favorite, too, and she'd said she'd never get rid of Lucy. Yet here she was, in the plush, along with Clothespin Dolly, Tiger Lily (a Native American doll in white buckskins), two little Amish dolls, as well as the clothes I used to dress Lucy in.

Cashmere, Hobbes, Lucy & Little Lucy, October 18th, 2010 (before Lucy's "bath")

Lucy, in vintage sweater, Winter 2010

And while I'm still kicking myself for the fact that the washing machine "ate" practically all the fuzz off her nose, and her mocha-brown fur--once so soft--got all frizzed up in the dryer (never mind that her sister, Little Lucy--made of the same materials--came through the wash unscathed)...well, despite all that, I'm still very happy to have Lucy Bear sitting proudly on my bed, wearing the sweater my other Grandma knitted many years ago...and consequently, matches the one Mom gave me a few years back. And while Lucy's tag states that she was manufactured in 1982, it doesn't say what month. So we pretend that today is her birthday, since this was the day she arrived. It's still rather miraculous to think of Grandma sending my her favorite teddy bear, but I thank God for it whenever I think about it.


Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,
~"Tom"~