Stuffed Animal Surgery

nine month old me with Mother Goose

When I was little there was nothing more amazing in this world than my stuffed animals. They all had their own personalities which were tiny little extensions of my own personality. The were confidants, playmates, comforters, and anything else I needed them to be. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking that stuffed animals are the most amazing gift any little girl could ask for. They only have one draw back, but it's a significant one. The more a child loves a stuffed animal, they more the stuffed animal will get ruined.

When something would happen to my stuffed animals (or other toys but most frequently stuffed animals) I would bring them to Dr. Meme to get fixed up. Dr. Meme is my grandmother and a pioneer in the field of stuffed animal surgery. She invented the neck transplant to fix up my poor poor Mother Goose more times than I can remember. She was always ready with a needle, thread, pliers, paint, bleach, whatever my toy required.

It's not that I didn't trust my mom. It's just that Meme had YEARS of experience and I only trusted my loved ones with the most expereinced inanimate object surgeon I could find. I would sit anxiously at the other end of the counter watching as she sewed animals back together, replaced gears in music boxes and performed other operations.

Like I said Mother Goose proved to be the biggest challenge. I got this Mother Goose when I was nine months old. Apparently at one point you could put cassettes in her and her mouth and eyes would move as if she was reading the stores, but I have no memory of this. I she was almost as tall as I was so I often carried her around by her neck. Eventually I pulled her head off her neck and messed the wiring all up. Her head didn't actually fall off but it hung awkwardly as if her neck was broken.

Dr. Meme never was able to make Mother Goose's mouth move again, but she did amazingly reattach her head to her neck. She cut into the seam in the fabric and used a wire coat hanger to support Mother Goose's neck and hold her head where it was supposed to go. It took about three different attempts at this "surgery" before it was a success.

This story may seem completely ridiculous now, but at the time I really felt as though Meme was a super hero when she fixed my toys. Despite all it's ups and downs I'm thankful that my childhood  allowed me to have such a close relationship with my grandparents.