A Very Special Gift

Hilda called last Thursday night while I was at class and talked to Zach. She told him, "I have a teddy bear for Isaac. He's bigger than your sonny boy. And he's all yellow. When can you come get him?"

She was VERY excited to give Isaac this teddy bear. I called her back on Friday and she wanted me to come get it right then. We had guests and plans all weekend, and then I had class on Monday, so I told her I could come get it on Tuesday. "I can't keep him here that long! He's huge!" she said. "Well, it's very nice of you, Hilda," I said, "but I can't get him until Tuesday."

That Saturday alone she left 6 messages on our answering machine--one every hour--and although we thought she had previously mastered the concept of the answering machine, she seemed to have forgotten all about it. Her messages all sounded like this: "Hello, Zach, this is Hilda. I need to speak to Kate, please. This is Hilda. Your neighbor. Put Kate on the phone please, Zach. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Put Kate on the phone please. Are you coming to get the teddy bear? Yes or no? Put Kate on. This is Hilda. I'll hold.....[her breathing for 2 minutes]....I'll call back."

When I finally called her on Monday, she said she thought I had forgotten about her. "I could never forget you, Hilda. You wouldn't let me. I got all your messages."

"I know," she said. "I called like a thousand times."

The next day, I picked her up at the Ark. She kept asking me if I was going to come up to get the bear. I said I would. She asked me where I was going to put it and what I was going to name it over and over again.

On our way up to the apartment, I told her, "Hilda, you know that we have an answering machine, right?" She said yes. "You know that you only have to leave ONE message and I'll call you back, right?" She said OK.

When we got up to her apartment, she brought me the bear with a big grin on her face. She was laughing like a little kid, "I told you he was big!" she said. "I LOVE it!" I exclaimed, trying to touch it as little as possible without letting on how disgusted I was.

This thing was HUGE. She wasn't kidding. And it had long yellow hair. And I'm pretty sure she found it in a dumpster. It stunk and was filthy. I brought it home, took Isaac's picture with it to give to Hilda, and took it immediately back to the dumpster. Here's the furry guy with our "sonny boy," who doesn't look too sure about it. This pic was taken in the hallway of our condo 'cause we didn't think it was a good idea to bring in to our home.
Here's a video that I took to capture Isaac's reaction to the bear. Do not mistake his smiles at his beautiful mother for smiles at the bear. Actually, Zach's reaction ended up being the one worth recording.

Hilda called about an hour after I had left her apartment to find out what Zach and Isaac thought of the bear. "They LOVE it!" I told her.

Now every time I talk to her she wants to know where the bear is. "He's sitting on a chair in the corner of Isaac's room," I tell her. When she asked me again what I was going to name him, I told her, "I think Hilda is nice."

"You better not!" she laughed. "I'll pop you one!"