(c)Vickey stamps 11/29/13
Sometimes in the land between what can be, and what should be, is a special place where magic and miracles travel hand in hand. Put on your traveling clothes and come with me to such a place.
The older woman, Miss Vickey was a maker of dolls, both boys and girls. Her health had taken a downhill slide, but she wasn’t about to let it drag her down. There were things she could do and she was determined to do it. There were sick kids out there and she had a plan to comfort them.
Separating pages from yesterdays newspaper, she laid them down upon the rug. knelling before it, and, using a permanent ink pen, she began to draw a doll body design. This first one would be a two in one or a topsy-turvy doll. It would be made of muslin and wear on one side a pretty dress and an embroidered smiling face. When its skirt was flipped, it would become a sleeping dolly wearing a nightgown. The possibilities swirled about in her mind, as she began to cut out the pattern for the body. A boy doll-buddy would come next.
Time had come and gone, and dolls had found a child to love them. They were mailed out clear across the Uniited states. One had even gone to Switzerland, to a child having a bone marrow transplant. There were so many very sick children and her heart was often heavy with sadness, that she might miss a child in need of the comfort the dolls might be able to bring. She’d written a story for each doll to give to the child. There was a number for each child and a birth certificate, so the new mother or doll buddy father could name them.
Had it been six years already, she’d been making the dolls? Where had they all gone, and oh…all those very sick children they’d been sent too.
She’d gotten a call today about a little blond headed blue eyed little boy, who was very sick with cancer. He had gotten over it for two years and now it had come back. It had come back with a vengence .. His name was Carson. His grandmother had called. She’d heard about the dolls, and as the tears flowed she’d asked could she buy a doll and could it get mailed right away. The doctors had told them he held little belief that the boy would survive. Maybe the doll could somehow comfort Carson, and make him not so very alone in that big hospital bed. “Could she help, oh please, could she help?” “No” she could not buy a doll, but Carson would get his doll as fast as she could make it happen. And so it came to be, in the land of reality, and the place where magic lives, a boy child within hours began to be ‘brought to life’.
“OUCH” the boy-buddy shouted in his best cloth voice. “Take it easy, Miss Vickey!” Having said that, he pulled himself from her arms, and began scampering about in his ‘birthday suit, a bit of stuffing coming out of a not quite fully stuffed leg, making him run in a sideways manner. MissVickey sat, surprised. None of her others had behaved in such a rambunctious manner. Not ever! She’d been stitching him together and completing the final stuffing. “Get back here, right now, you little rascal. I have to finish you tonight and mail you out in the morning. I guess I’ll have to start another doll . You might not be the right one for Carson. You are too full of energy for a very sick child.”
Now the boy-buddy doll let itself fall onto the floor with a soft thump. And in the land of magic, a tear ran down its embroidered face. “I’m sorry, Miss Vickey. I just got excited. Us cloth dolls got feelings too you know. You need a sharper needle. That one you are using is dull. Yikes! anyway, I know about Carson. I was there in your mind when you started planning me. I’m going to wear that long sleeve t-shirt and them over-alls there. See that cool Hooded jacket over there? It’s for me too. I’m the right buddy for Carson. I just know it!. Please, oh please Miss Vickey. I’ll be good”
So again it came to be that the doll buddy soon lay in his cardboard package, telling all those in the baggage and mail room about Carson. As the land of magic would have it to be, it was allowed to be picked up for delivery before the other packages, and sent off with a resounding and very loud applause and rounds of good wishes for Carson to get well. The doll buddy was on its way to its child
Again and as only could happen in the land of could be and should be, and again that of magic, mysterious and wonderful things began to conspire between four year old Carson and the doll buddy. the doll snuggled up to Carson and talked to him of how good he would feel very soon now. They would be buddies and play together, share things together. He loved Carson, and the Creator that made Miss Vickey, made her make Him. He could make Carson better. He just had to help by believing it. The doll would help him all he could. The doctors would call it a miracle because all of a sudden Carson seemed to change from a dying boy, to one struggling to get well. Each time it came time for a shot, or an IV, the doll buddy got the same thing. They became a special pair. Now Carson could sit up and have jello, and seven-up. Tomorrow he’d been promised ice-cream and maybe the tiniest bite of Pumpkin pie. It would be Thanksgiving day. His parents and all the family would be there, each having Thanksgiving guest plates, and each wearing a smile. Carson and his doll-buddy would go home in two more days. It would be an awesome time of Thanksgiving and Christmas was almost here. Inside his doll buddy body, he had to agree that it was indeed a fact …
Life was good.
