The old one sat among the quiet ones...humming softly...The tune from remembered childhood softly seeping from her lips..Aged baby and toddler dresses lay upon her lap in disaray...Once belonging to her grandchildren...many memories here...Silvered hair bent over one doll with close clasping of the antinqued body...This one was  very special as it cried mama ..mama..mama...When picked up  and laid down again...The cries...so intense...reminded her of her Mother calling out years  ago ..mind closed. off...Mother, once so beautiful and graceful..dying in a torment of brokeness...Slowly  , all physical and mental beauty destroyed by senililty..Old lady sat and reminisced of the year she went  to live with Mother ....Taking her Charley Chaplin doll and the one lovely porcelain faced..."Beautiful Girl ",she was called... Companions of her young childhood...Both sat in her bicycle basket and they went everywhere with her...They took away the feeling of  lonliness ...One year with her Mother and then sent back to the country to live...Without her  companions ...never to see them again..Charley and "Beautiful Girl" forever gone ! When her children grew up and left for their own lives ( and grandchildren also...)The old Lady collected dolls and stuffed animals for years ...The Lady was growning more and more attached to each one...The living room. the bedroom and finally the house filled up with them ...each given a name and each hugged with sentimental joy ....Patients made handmade dolls and gave them to her as" Thenk You" for the care she gave ...Tables and floors were  receipents of carefully placed  adored ones...The years filled the house with more and more  dolls and stuffed animals...no chairs were left unattended...But , sadly , none were given the name Charley or Beautiful Girl ...They were never found  among the years of searching...I wonder if there are many old Ladies like the one I knew? I Still do                                        sequoyah 8/17/2000       Next