TheBanyanTree: Give-away 5 - Fuzzies

[auntie sash]

In case you haven't been playing along, these are little stories to help
flesh out the significance of gifts I've chosen for a give away that
will happen Sunday following the end of a wanagi yuhapi - Lakota "keeping
of the soul" ceremony.
The story itself might feel like a repeat.  I think I may have written about
her purple
fuzzy before.  So stop me if you've heard this one :o)
- sash
 -------------------------

Mom was really tolerant of my stuffed animal addiction.  Maybe she thought
it was good substitute for an actual pet.  Maybe she would have acted
differently if I'd been a child during the insanity of the Beanie Baby
years.  Hard to say, but even though *she *wasn't into stuffed animals, she
seemed to accept the way I bonded with them.  In spite of fears that I might
smother myself in my sleep, she allowed me to post the sentries around my
pillow every night - each bear, raccoon, and wolf pup in exactly the right
spot.

She did draw the line at the stuffed snake I won at the Missoula County
Fair.  She hated snakes and feared them so he went directly to the trunk of
the car – tied securely in a plastic bag – to be taken to the Salvation Army
thrift store.


The Alzheimer care facility where mother spent her final years was
comfortable and warm.  The sitting areas, library, and country style kitchen
were a little generic, but could have been in any family home.  Mom walked
and walked - all day long.  She wandered from room to room collecting
treasures from here and there – what the staff calls a "shopper".  (Sounds
better than kleptomaniac, I guess)

One Easter, I brought her a big, fluffy, purple elephant.  Mom loved purple
and I thought it might make her smile.  It certainly did!  Her face lit up.
She loved his shiny eyes, his satin ribbon, his pudgy little tusks, and his
snuggly soft fur.  She dropped all her other collected treasures to hold him
better.  I tried to take her photo, but she had lost ALL interest in me.  I
reached out to hold the elephants paw so she would pause for a moment and my
camera captured a little spark of my mother's former personality as she
glared at the stranger who was messing with her fuzzy.

It was hard for mom to keep track of a dependent like that, so after a few
weeks the elephant disappeared.  (My mother was not the ONLY "shopper" at
Alterra).  Each subsequent holiday and birthday, I would buy a big, bright,
fluffy, soft fuzzy for momma.

Holidays were tough this year.  I would find myself in the seasonal aisle at
Fred Meyers, snuggling a frog or bear, holding back tears as I imagined the
joy on momma's face.

Mom would smile to see the fuzzies in the giveway - even the snakes.

She's not afraid of snakes anymore.

- sarahanne april 2008
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My mother had a great deal of trouble with me but I think she enjoyed it.
- Mark Twain