The Sentimental Mum
Hello readers, welcome back!
It’s the last week before the summer holidays and the weather in Edinburgh is a very unusual 27 degrees and I am suffering. As a Scottish lass I am just not made for this heat but then again I wouldn’t be British if I didn’t complain about the weather.
I have been getting the house ready for the summer but having a right good clear out (I hate clutter), getting rid of the last of the baby things (sad face) as its official we are not (probably) going to have another child. (Maybe.)
Our bedroom is the dumping ground in the house as it’s the room guests don’t go in and we lack vital storage space in the rest of the house.
The top of the wardrobe had been storing the carry cot and a few more baby items that were now for the tip and as we moved them, I spotted a familiar face....Blue Ted!
Who is Blue Ted?
Well anyone who knew me before I met my husband will know who Blue Ted is; he was my first best friend.
The day I was born my mum’s bridesmaid - Debora visited and gifted me my first friend and from that moment that bear hardly left my side.
He isn’t very soft and he isn’t very squidgy to cuddle but he was and is my chosen toy.
I needed him to sleep and over the years he became misshapen due to the way I had to hold him when I slept. (Upside down with his legs around my neck, strange)!
He came on every adventure with me which has caused his ears, tail and groin to be restuffed and sewn too many time to count...I once ended it with a guy I was dating as he thought it would be funny to pull his ear off (who does that).
He adores the hand knitted jumper that I was taken home from the hospital in, everything about him screams sentimental, he is irreplaceable, one of a kind. Before I had children he would have been the one thing I saved in a fire, he means the world to me, even now.
Let me tell you a little story, it’s about an adventure Blue Ted had.
Now I told you, my bear went everywhere with me and I NEEDED him to sleep, so like always I packed him in my bag for the annual church trip to Centre Parcs.
We got the train there every year around Easter, it was a trip that we fun raised for all year and it was always so much fun.
We got on the London train, exiting at Nottingham as we normally went to the Sherwood Forest resort as it was our favourite one and if you have ever been it was the bigger of the resorts back then. We gathered ourselves outside the station getting ready to throw our bags in the mini bus and drive the last wee bit of our journey.
My mum (who was the Sunday school teacher) noticed a bag missing straight away; it was a bag she often kept an eye on as the cargo was too precious to lose...Blue Ted was gone!
I was too excited about reaching the final destination that I hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t until I saw my mum looking at me with a panic in her eye that it clicked. I hadn’t picked up all my bags, I had forgotten my pal and he was now on his way to London Kings Street station without me. We had never been apart before.
My mum always tells me she has never seen colour drain from a face before till that moment and I burst into tears. I couldn’t believe he was gone. I was 16 and I was as devastated as any 3 year old would have been losing their beloved toy.
That holiday was doused with sadness as we were unable to get through to the lost and found department in London during our whole visit so it seemed I may never get to see that old bear again. I was old enough to understand losing a toy isn’t the end of the world (unlike a 3 year old) but I was so used to holding something when I slept my mum made me a make shift shape of ted to hold but it just wasn’t the same. It sounds daft but it felt like someone close to me had passed and I was mourning him.
Weeks passed and it was becoming clear he was gone and I was sad but moving on. I was “grown up” now and I guess still being emotionally attached to a soft toy was something I needed to distance myself from anyway.
Then the phone rang, it was LONDON! They had Blue Ted!!
Mum had called many times and left endless messages to call if they found him, leaving a detailed description of him. All the pestering must have worked because as they were working their way through the mountains of lost items, the blue bear stood out to them and they knew someone had been missing him. He had been found!
Well now what was the problem? they would post him back, he had to be collected!?! Eh?!? How was I going to do that?!
The other option was to put him back on a train back up to Edinburgh. This was better but back then I was not living in Edinburgh, I was on a small Island in the west coast. He was still so far out of reach.
He was sitting in the Edinburgh train station when my auntie saved the day and rescued him. He was on his way back to me.
He arrived by post and I couldn’t wait to get home from school and hold him again.
When I did, he was there, exactly the same just a little dustier but he was home!
When I hugged him, I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. I felt whole again.
Looking back, it seems silly to think about an object like that but he was my emotional crutch, my constant until my husband replaced him.
So when he fell down from the wardrobe and I held him, smelt him and kissed his nose like I used to do every day it was like saying hello to an old friend I had lost contact with.
My Blue Ted, one special little bear.
Did you have a special toy as a child? Do you still have it?
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