Mom's Bear...

Growing up we always knew, this was Mom's bear. We could come and snuggle it if we were in her bedroom with her, but the bear was NOT to leave the room, and should always be up on a shelf so the dog didn't get it.

This bear was the one that Mom took with her to all of the Mother Daughter banquets we went to where we were encouraged to bring our furry friends, but I made fun of Mom a little, because hers was no longer furry - in fact, she loved the fur right off of it.

This bear was placed in Mom's cradle at the hospital shortly after she was born, and it stayed with her always. It's the one thing that we always loved, and she did too. When she started getting sicker and I arrived in South Dakota, we all started to look for the bear. We thought It might bring her comfort, and us too. We could not locate the darn thing anywhere. We looked through every storage shed, every bin, every closet in Kathy's and in Shannon's house, and we decided that It must have gotten thrown out, or donated. We were a little heartbroken, this little bear meant so much to Mom and we wanted her to have it.

The day we got the things together to take to the funeral home, we were still looking for the bear, we really wanted to put it in the casket with her, it only seemed right, but alas the bear was no where to be found.

I got this text message today - "Look who showed up" from Kathy. She found it stashed in her garage in a tub that was way up in the corner - a tub we hadn't looked in (obviously). I can only conclude that the bear needed to find its way to us to make us smile and think of Mom. Kathy grabbed it and squeezed it, and I wish I was there so I could do the same. It's funny how a little (not so fuzzy) bear can mean so much.