Sentimental things can brighten a day, and sometimes we don’t know something is going to be sentimental until much later. And for a dog who loves stuffed things, this new gift is going to be especially wonderful
Mama Romero, Margo’s mother, sewed a black haired raggedy-ann doll for Amber this week, and is sending it from many states away. Amber can hardly wait for her new soft friend. This is a sentimental gift that Amber has had twice.
When Amber was about 7 years old, living in Logan, Utah, a package was dropped off on her families snowy doorstep. It said “To Amber, from someone who loves you.” It was a black haired home-made raggedy ann doll. The wrapping paper was a maroon Christmas print and her dress almost matched the wrapping. Amber thought that maybe it was her biological mother that must have dropped off the gift. It was made special: A dark haired doll for a dark haired child in a blond family. The doll was named “Kristeen Ann” after Ambers last elementary school teacher (3rd grade) and it quickly became the most important thing Amber owned. She carried that doll everywhere, and when she was happy she threw the doll in the air and laughed, and when she was in trouble or feeling blue, she cried many tears into the cloth friend. It seemed the doll understood her, and was always a symbol of love for Amber.
Amber never learned who sent the doll to her that cold day, but she does remember who took it away from her years later. It was lost to someone else who felt that Amber’s attachment to the doll was too strong, and she needed to be separated from it. Someone else’s religious beliefs that worldly things are not of God, and we must give all of them away broke Ambers heart.
When Amber turned 18 she ran an add in the Logan newspaper asking for anyone who knows of Kristeen Ann’s whereabouts that there would be a hard-earned reward for her. There was never a response to the add, and Amber grew up to be a mother herself and bought dolls for her own daughter, but there was never anything at all like Kristeen Ann.
The origins of the original Raggedy Ann doll was created by Gruelle for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew a face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphan Annie." He said, "Why don’t we call her Raggedy Ann?" This doll was the perfect sentimental symbol for Amber in every way. Amber certainly felt raggedy herself, and as an adopted child, she understood orphans.
The stranger who made this doll special for Amber will always have her deepest gratitude and love, and even though the generous person is still anonymous, Amber will always know that someone out there loves her.
And Amber also knows that someone loves her again through a new sentimental gift. A new Kristeen Ann is coming in the mail. The new rag will share the secrets of Amber and me for the rest of our life. And even though I love to shake up stuffed toys and run them through the mud like a true doggie should, this one is all for Amber, the dark haired kid who is all grown up.
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