Thumbelina

Thumbelina 2009

This last week I was challenged to take a photograph of my most treasured possession. (It couldn’t be something that breathed)  I lay awake at night contemplating everything I own.  I felt like I was asked to think of something that I would save if there was a house fire.  My choice might have been different as I would probably have chosen my camera, computer, or family photo albums.  Of course, these choices would be based on dollar value combined with sentimental value.  Oh, my gosh, am I ever going to get to sleep?  Okay, it’s the next night…I’m, again, trying to sleep…should I choose a family heirloom?  No.  Things my kids or husband gave me?  No.  Just as I’m about to drift off to sleep…I’ve got it…my Thumbelina doll that I have owned since I was a wee lassie.

I think about her every once in awhile as she lay comfortably in my grown daughter’s toy box.  When Tara was approximately 2 1/2 years old, I decided it was time to begin a new tradition.  As I looked in the box that held my childhood baby, the memories came flooding back to when I was 3 years old.  She was the only thing I still owned from my childhood.  She has a few chewed fingers (I actually remember chewing on them).  She had a wind-up knob on her back which allowed her head to turn in small circles in that newborn sort of way.  When that broke, my grandpa replaced it with a large nut.  I have such wonderful memories of Grandma and Grandpa.  Thumbelina’s hair is coarse and the holes in her sweet plastic head are showing as the years have passed.  I told my daughter I was going to share “my baby” with her.  She was now going to be her mommy.  She was to play with her, care for her and love her as I did.  Was I asking too much of a two-year old?  I don’t think so.  As my mother-in-law lovingly sewed the small hole in her cloth body, I got out my point-and-shoot camera, which always sat on the kitchen counter ready to capture any special moment.  Capturing this memory was as important as the doll herself.  Time has marched on, and Thumbelina is safely tucked away in the toybox once more waiting for a time when another little girl will have the chance to play with her, care for her and love her as we have.

Now I have two treasures to keep, “our” Thumbelina and my photograph that will add to my most treasured memories.

Grandma West, Thumbelina and Tara 1994

~ by joandayimages on October 22, 2009.