The "Man with the Furry Brown Hair" Story

It was an ordinary day. I had just finishing ear surgery on Teddy. Teddy is the other male in my wife's life. He lives with us. He is the same age as her, never lost his brown hair or had it turn gray. He did lose both his eyes over the years and his hearing is weak like mine. I got Teddy Bear from my mom and dad when I was three years old. Took him everywhere. He was my security blanket. He was my "binky". Funny how I still have him around. He has moved from house to house five times in his life with me. Survived many pets biting him and throwing him around. Survived three siblings and their friends. A few years ago his ears somehow became partiallydetached and his excelsior stuffing starting coming out. I guess that can't give me some type of medical condition. The other night I was looking through some old photos and came upon a photo from the 1980s which had the steps in our home on Janet Ave. covered with all the bears in the family. Some were our kids' bears and some belonged to my wife. But, there sat Teddy on the far left of the next to top row with his red ribbon around his neck. He was really enjoying himself. Proud to be there. And ... he belonged to me! When we moved to our home we now have, he found a permanent spot in his favorite rocking chair in the living room. Never misses a visit from the family. After seeing the photo, I picked up Teddy to examine him. He really needed to have his ears reattached before they fell off. Found a rather large needle and grabbed a spool of fishing line and spent some time with him, re-attaching his ears to his head. I was almost done when my mom made her evening call. "What are you doing?" she said to me. "Fixing Teddy's ears," I replied. "You still have that Teddy Bear?" was her response. "Hey, he is 63 years old. You have to treat old people with some respect. Besides, he's an antique, like you," I told her. Made her laugh. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.