By Jeff Mullin, Senior Writer
Confession is good for the soul.
So come on, ’fess up. Undoubtedly every one of us has a deep, dark, dirty secret we have kept locked away in the deepest recesses of our hearts, some for many years.
This secret is dirty, all right, and tattered, with key bits often missing.
And quite often this secret is leaking stuffing.
Each of us, at some point in our lives, had something we absolutely could not live without.
No, not your cell phone, moisturizer or 60-degree wedge. Think even more precious, in the more distant past — much more distant.
Think back to the days when your world was much smaller and warmer, when the most important people in the universe (be-sides you, of course) were your mommy and daddy, and when your best friend was a soft, inanimate object.
It might have been a stuffed bear or a rabbit. It might have been a pillow or a blanket.
It went everywhere with you. Sometimes you carried it, often you simply dragged it along behind you, but you were never without it.
You ate with it, as evidenced by the milk and cereal stains all over it. You slept with it, and the drool stains offered mute testimony. You took it to the bathroom with you, and Mom threw it in the wash soon thereafter.
Should you ever, heaven forbid, have found yourself without your soft friend, your life suddenly became a living hell — as did that of your parents.
Which is why an Alabama woman, Rosemary Bouchet, has started a blog called Plus Memories Lost Toy Search Service, which allows parents to search for their child’s beloved lost inanimate friend.
On the blog, frantic parents can post details about and even photos of these beloved lost objects.
Melissa is seeking a blanket her son left in a hotel in Tybee Island, Ga., in July 2006. Janel desperately is searching for a stuffed bunny wearing a yellow beanie, yellow pajamas and white bunny slippers.
Lisa’s 3-year-old son has not lost his stuffed lamb, but he literally has loved the stuffing out of it, so his mom is seeking a replacement. Christy is looking for a gray bunny named Johnny that was lost during a trip to Disney World in October. Her son Andrew is heartbroken. He wrote a letter to Santa asking to help find Johnny and return him home.
“We are hoping God (or Santa) can help us with a miracle,” his mother wrote.
Not all of stories of lost fuzzy friends involve heartbroken children. Jessica is looking for a stuffed bear like the one her husband received from his mother when he was a child. Now, he is a new daddy himself, and would like to give his daughter a bear just like the one he loved as a child.
Hugh and Marianne, two 30-somethings from California, are looking for a little stuffed dog that helped them through some tough times while they were working and going to school.
An Ohio mother is looking for Bobbity, a pink and calico patchwork rabbit that was her son’s constant companion — in the 1980s. He’s gotten over losing the rabbit, she writes, but she hasn’t.
My childhood love was a small gray stuffed cat I called Miss Puss. I dragged that thing everywhere and, after a time, it showed. She lost an eye, one ear drooped and went left a trail of stuffing bits wherever we went.
She was lumpy, frayed and certainly wasn’t much to look at — but I loved her nonetheless.
Which is comforting to all of us middle age guys who are lumpy, frayed, funny looking and leaking a little more stuffing every day.
Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle.
