The Un-Unsentimental Niece

  Regular readers of the blog may have read mention of my niece,which I refer to by the code name Unsentimental Niece. I call her that because, amongst other reasons, she sold off bits of her childhood for a few dollars at yard sales. However, I recently found out that she's not totally unsentimental.
  When my niece was about 5 her parents divorced, and soon afterward a close friend of the family gave her a stuffed Garfield the cat doll.

Like this one I found on an online auction. I'll remove the picture if asked.

  The giver of the doll soon became her mother's boyfriend and my niece was very fond of him. She loved Garfield until his stripes wore off. She took him to Kindergarten everyday. Soon her father became jealous of the boyfriend and gifted his daughter with a stuffed bear she named Bear Bear. My niece gave up Garfield. Bear Bear became her special toy. You know. that one toy you keep forever.
  Over the years my niece has moved around a bit. She is 38 now, and she has lived in California, North Carolina,Ohio,and repeats of the same, plus who knows where else. On her last move from California she misplaced Bear Bear. She thought he had been accidentally thrown away in the move. That was 5 years ago. She made a trip to visit a friend in California a few weeks ago and guess what?

  Said friend had been holding on to Bear Bear for her for 5 years. Unsentimental Niece was overjoyed to have him back. Maybe I will have to give her a new code name...