Story by Deb Adler
The day rings out in my mind as if it were yesterday. I was a patient in St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin on full bed-rest awaiting the birth of my first son. A few friends from my marriage group were expected to come visit that Sunday afternoon.
It wasn’t a very pleasant afternoon. The morning had started out with a migraine. Not a typical one but this one was worse than I have ever experienced before. I wasn’t allowed medication except for a shot of Demerol. When the Demerol would wear off, the pain was still there. The pounding in my head was like a jackhammer with no signs of it stopping! It was definitely not a good time for visitors, beings how I couldn’t have the light on in my room. But it was too late to call them off from coming.
As Mary, Laura, and Jill entered the room I felt like the war in my head had not subsided at all and the room was spinning faster than a merry-go-round. When anyone would talk even at a normal tone it felt like an air-horn going off. Sitting up even became a task that couldn’t be accomplished. Moaning and heaving were the only things that were coming out of my mouth. What my head needed was another dose of Demerol. For the longest time I did not even realize there was someone else that was there with the three women. It was Mary’s daughter, Rebecca. I tried to sit up for a short time but it only lasted for about 2 minutes. The pain just kept intensifying in my head and I would start to heave once again. But this didn’t stop Rebecca, just short of turning 12 years old at the time, to approach me. With my head spinning faster than being on a roller coaster, she stepped in front of me with a little angel teddy bear in her hand. She handed me the teddy bear and told me that she wanted me to find comfort and proceeded to stand there. I thanked her but really was not in the mood to sit and chat with her or anybody else at the time.
As the group was getting ready to leave, I pleaded with them to stay and pray with me. I desperately wanted to be better company to them. After all they did drive quite a distance to come and see me and now they were leaving after only a short visit.
It was a couple of days later that would help me to understand just what a special gift that Rebecca had given that will forever be ingrained into my memory no matter how painful my migraine was that day. Jill, one of the ladies that came that day, called me and told me that she heard on the way home from visiting me just where that little teddy bear came from. She proceeded to tell me that the teddy bear that Rebecca had given to me was actually given to her at one time from her mother when her great grandmother died. The bear was meant to comfort her during her time of need.
The Teddy Bear’s significance came when Rebecca’s great grandmother suffered a stroke in 1995 and did not have the ability to move or talk. Her great grandmother became bedridden in December of 1996 and whenever the family would visit her there would be a tenseness in the room. Mary (Rebecca’s Mother) decided to have a bear in the room that when you pressed it would say “You’re my special friend.” Seeing this bear reminded the kids of the comfort and the talks they would have about great grandmother going to be with Jesus. When Great Grandmother passed away Mary wanted to get her daughter Rebecca a bear that had a special significance to it. This bear was to help her remember her Great Grandmother.
This beautiful almost 12 year old girl was not afraid to approach me in the hospital when it looked like a truck just ran me over. She gave me something that was near and dear to her heart in a generous, caring and unselfish way to get me through my rough time with having migraines and being in the hospital waiting for the premature birth of my son not knowing at that time what the result would be of my son’s early arrival. She not only gave up something that was so precious and sentimental to her but she gave it to me and did not tell me the story behind it. She wasn’t looking for any fanfare by telling me just what she was giving up. But instead she humbly came before me acting like an adult in her thinking and her giving. That little Angel bear sat next to me in the delivery room as I gave birth to my son. The “Little Angel Bear” sits in my son Caleb’s room today and it reminds me of what REAL LOVE is.
Today Rebecca (Becca as my son calls her) is a darling 15-year-old girl that is very good with Caleb as his baby-sitter.
I will never forget the love and sacrifice it took for her to hand me that Angel Teddy Bear that day.
Thank you Becca for the love that you showed me that day. You will always have a special part in my heart and Caleb’s too!
