A gift like no other

Thumbelina was not my first and only doll, but she was the only one that ever garnered my attention. I cannot say I was a Tomboy, but I also would not categorize myself as a prissy girlie-girl that cared more about dressing up Barbies and spending hours on plastic dish tea parties with my pinky raised high in my mother's high heels.

Thumbelina was delivered to me on Christmas,1962, not by Santa, by stork, I assumed, because I believed she was a real live baby. She was so lifelike, so soft, and she even sucked her thumb. Forget the fact that she had to be wound to move. Incidental. When I turned her back over after winding her, her head moved, like a real baby, slow and circularly and I'd swear she was whispering "momma" to me, but it was just the sound of friction coming from her inner mechanical device.

And then horror of all horrors she broke! Her movement stopped and the world around me crashed. I was devastated. Thumbelina was dead.

"No no no, dear. She is not dead. She is just sick. And what do we do when we are sick? We go to the doctor or the hospital." Said my wonderful father when he got home from work. And off he went without supper in our family Chrysler, returning an hour later with Thumbelina as good as new…..because she actually was. If I knew, I didn't care and played along. My sister said I was a baby if I believed there was a doll hospital. I didn't care. She was just my very own Thumbelina returned as good as new, or new, and I was a little girl with a father that cared more about me than watching the evening news and his own hunger.

When I got older, the thrill of motherhood temporarily wore off and Thumbelina wound up on a shelf in the closet and I had almost forgotten about her. I started babysitting around 12 years old and this cute little girl I watched named Kelly Gogetz had captured my heart. Kelly told me she had always wanted a Thumbelina doll, so the next time I went to babysit, without a second thought, I grabbed my old Tumbelina off the shelf, dusted her off and gave her away.

Damn. Do you know what Thumbelina would be worth right now on eBay?

Any monetary value cannot compare to the memory of spending time cuddled up with her, watching her move and listening to her whisper my name. "Momma."

I miss my days and nights with Thumbelina, but even more so, I miss the memory of watching my hero father from the living room window, driving off to the doll hospital, and returning with her unpackaged, cradled in his arms, smiling right at me as he walked up the front steps of our home, offering a gift like no other.