On a family trip to Chicago to celebrate mom’s sixtieth birthday, she fell in love with an American Girl doll. She had always wanted a fancy doll but her parents were never able to afford one for her when she was a girl. It was silly she said, as all her girls were grown and there were no granddaughters to pay so much for a doll. After all, she was all grown up.
After we were back at the hotel, Dad disappeared and went back to pick out the doll Mom had admired and hid it in the car before coming back to the room.
The next day we celebrated mom’s birthday and our whole family waited in anticipation to see Mom’s reaction when she saw her dolls. We hovered close as Dad sat smugly watching in the background. Mom slowly unwrapped the package and exclaimed with pure pleasure when she saw the beautiful dolls wrapped so delicately in the box.
Pulling one doll from its box, Mom gave it a hug and then held her out at arm’s length for further inspection. Suddenly, she pulled the doll back close to her face very quickly and then looked up at my father with such a look of surprise we couldn’t figure out what was going on! “Let us see, Mom” we all begged.
She turned the doll slowly around, the whole time looking at my father with tears in her eyes, and there around the doll’s neck was a spectacular diamond necklace, the likes of which I don’t think Mom ever thought she would own.
Mom wears that beautiful necklace every day, and every night it rests on her favorite doll.
