Beloved Brown Bear

I think I've written about Brown Bear before. He is a part of our family, usually attached to Kimmie's right arm. He is a worn and balding teddy bear. He is well loved. He sleeps with Kimmie every night. He goes to the doctor and to the hospital with Kimmie. He has been through surgery with her. She carries him to church, to the store, anyplace we will let her take him. We draw the line at school, too much risk of losing him.

I took him to work with me not long ago. I was going to be picking Kimmie up at school and taking her to the dentist. I knew she would want him at the dentist. I felt guilty leaving him in the car in the cold. He looked rather forlorn laying in the back seat all alone.

We often worry about what happens when Brown Bear falls apart. How will Kimmie deal with it.

Last week we were hopeful that she would attach herself to a new bear. She had snatched a brown bear from her sister's room and played with it the rest of the evening. We were hopeful she would take to this new bear, but we were skeptical.

For some bizarre reason Dad got the notion last week that if Brown Bear disappeared for a while, Kimmie would forget about him. Now Kimmie's sister and I looked at Dad like he had grown an extra head, but he persisted.

After Kimmie went to sleep on the couch that night, Dad carried her up to bed and intentionally left Brown Bear in the family room, taking her sister's bear up to bed with Kimmie instead.

A few hours later we were roused from sleep by Kimmie crying. She wanted Brown Bear, so Dad retrieved him from the family room. The next morning, he commented that she only lasted three hours without Brown Bear.

Since then he has made sure Brown Bear goes to bed with Kimmie.

--Mom