The Bear’s sister Vickie has had a serious operation, and is still in hospital recovering. He will be seeing her this week in England, and he will be bringing along a very special new friend – a lovely blonde Steiff bear we met recently. He was just irresistible with his beautiful mohair plush, growler, and sweet, friendly face – and he is big enough to hug which is best of all. The evening we found him we realized his name is Harald. The two Bears are on the plane now, to see Vickie, and to join her amazing collection of hundreds of bears both large and small.
Here is the note that Harald prepared for Vickie to introduce himself. He took a picture of his sincere sweet face for the cover of his letter.
April 9, 2011
Hello Vickie,
My name is Harald, and as of course you can see I am a light brown Bear (rather naked just at the moment, but perhaps you have a nice sweater I could borrow!) I’ve been on a long journey to see you, with my starting place in Germany where I was born, and an involved set of circumstances that got me to America (which I can hardly remember it is so complicated). Finally one day I was sitting in a store with some of my friends (a very large Lion on wheels who was a friendly fellow, and another quite large brown Bear named Aloysius who enjoyed rather too many beers for my taste) and some others I knew less well.
But then your brother the Bear and La Calavera came by, and called out to me that you were in need of a lovely Bear for company, and I decided that I should come along with them to see you.
And so, here I am, having now come back from America to Europe, to England. I am quite prepared to sit here with you as long as you like. I don’t need a lot of conversation, but I do have a growl as you will determine if you rock me forwards and backwards. I’m a soft touch—just give me a bit of love and friendliness and I’ll just growl for fun.
I come bringing love from your dear brother and sister-in-law who think of you all the time,
Your new, but faithful friend,
Harald (the Bear)
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Get well soon Vickie! We love you.
Vickie is getting better, and we talked to her on Sunday to our delight. She is still in hospital but is improving now. She was very aware of Harald the Bear, and commented that she didn't think she had a sweater he could borrow. I was a bit surprised, because it seems to me that there are a couple of thousand bears in her house so there must be a spare sweater among them. I suggested she might take a sweater off of one of the bears and give it to Harald. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I could never take off a sweater once it was given to a Bear. It's theirs then!" I'm still chuckling about this.
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