er in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea！ Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas, one exactly like the doll that got broken. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my compassionate little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories﹖
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local dollmaker who made doll heads, hands and feet of a ceramic10 that closely resembled the old porcelain ones. From her I commissioned11 a doll head in the style of three-quarters of a century ago -- making sure to specify .“big blue eyes that opened and closed,” and hands and feet. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown wig12 and a kidskin body, and Meagan and I shopped for fabric, lace and ribbon to duplicate13 the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz, who had some experience with a hot-glue gun, volunteered to put the doll together, and as the last days before Christmas raced by, Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit, complete with lacy petticoat. And while Liz, Chris and I searched for doll “boots with real buttons,” Meagan wrote and illustrated the story of the lost doll.
Finally, our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But, of course, there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it﹖
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our gaily wrapped gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
“Read it out loud,” one of the other children demanded. GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
ｗｔ．ｐｏｏ到請，節章新最書本看
”.reh ekil yltcaxe ,llod dlo ym ekil yltcaxe s’ehS“ ,niaga revo dna revo detaeper ehs ,smra liarf reh ni llod eht gnildarC .yoj fo sraet erew yeht emit siht tub ,llef sraet reh niaga ecnO .tsehc reh ot ti dleh dna llod eht detfil ehs sa ecaf s’GG no kool eht tegrof reven ll’I
ssopmi revewoh spahreP .dnik eb ot taht gniyas tsuj t’nsaw ehs spahrep dnA
