Bye Bye Rara

When I was born, my father was stationed in North Dakota and couldn't get home in time to see me make my debut. When he finally managed to wrangle leave and get back to the City Unique, he rushed into the tuck shop and purchased 'the only teddy bear they had left' (or so the legend goes - Dad is kinda dramatic, sometimes...). Rara was my constant companion through all of the normal childhood trials and tribulations (and a few abnormal ones, too)

And then, he was gone...
Actually, I sent him on his way... to the dump. I had hung onto him until I left home but my mother, inexplicably, stuck him in my hands when I decided to move "away" for the "last time". He ended up in a damp coal cellar, moldy and stinky... and falling apart. He had seen all the life that he needed to see and with my allergies, he was making me seriously ill. So long, old friend. You of sleepless nights and story-time under our pine-tree tent. Of cocoa and toast and Star Trek on Sunday mornings. Of childhood and of childish things...