"Heather" Submitted by SF, 35 years old

My woobie was a life size doll (life size for about a three year old) her name was Heather and she was (as the story goes) the best friend of Holly Hobby. I never cared much for the whole Holly Hobby thing, not quite my gig but Heather was a whole different story. Heather started out kind of scratchy and her hair was rough red yarn braided into two short braids that barely hung from her floppy hat. She wore a dress with an apron and had feet that were perfectly round. I am not sure exactly how or when I acquired Heather but she became the second most important thing in my life by around age four. The most important thing being my thumb which fit perfectly on my palate and was the most sleep inducing object I have yet to this day ever found. Holly was just one of a multitude of dolls and stuffed animals in my collection and she was by far not the cutest, softest or most endearing but she fit perfectly in the crook of my arm. When I held her in my left arm and sucked my right thumb it felt like everything in the world was perfectly aligned. As years went by Heather only became softer and more comforting. There were those awful occasions when she would rip and tear, usually at the neck and I would go to my grandfather who was a tailor back in the old country of Poland) and he would "operate" each time he would repair her he would use a different color ribbon and would tell me that she was so pretty that she deserved a necklace, as a teenager I realized that the necklace was developed because the fabric around the tear was so soft and worn it would have been impossible for him to just sew the material back together. By the time Heather made the big move from sleeping in the bed every night to being placed on shelf she had a variable rainbow of necklaces, she was soft as a cotton ball and lacked any of the firmness her arms and legs once had. I think the best thing about Heather is how the memories of her bring back the memories of my grandfather who I did not get to spend much time with as he died when I was young. I will always remember how he cared for Heather and now realize it was not Heather he really cared about, it was really me