Lilly

My mother is not remembered as being someone who would openly buy and spoil us with gifts. Most of what we asked for was rejected, but that is not to say she never bought us anything. I've written about the dollhouse furniture she bought me, and that memory brings a lot of grief. But this one brings joy. 

One year on a book order, my mother let me buy a set - the book, a cassette tape, and a character doll. I think it must have cost her somewhere between $10-$15 for the set. It wasn't like her to buy the entire set considering the book and cassette tape together probably only would have cost around $7. But she did. I vaguely remember the book orders being handed out in class when they arrived and some of my classmates envied the fact that my mother bought it for me.

Pristine condition if I do say so myself...the tag is still attached to her arm.

It's a cute storybook. I still remember swapping out the cassette tape holder to a "cooler" one my grandfather had. Instead of a plastic hinge lid, there's a little button you can press and the cassette tape slides out from the compartment. My grandfather wrote the title on the side for me. It's one of the last remaining pieces of his handwriting I have in English. 

I did a random search online to see what Lilly would go for on the market today. The doll itself is being sold for almost $40! Not to say someone is going to pay that much for a plush doll...but you never know. 

My mother didn't buy random things for us because she didn't see the value in them. If we could convince her an item had a purpose other than "because I want it," there was more of a chance she would buy it for us. I don't remember the reasoning I gave her to justify buying the entire book set including the doll, but she bought it for me. I enjoyed Lilly as a child, but she wasn't played with. However, I never got rid of her. 

Recently, my children wanted to play with the box of stuffed animals in the closet so I pulled the boxes out and let them go nuts. When they cleaned up, my daughter saved Lilly and didn't put her back into the box. She asked me if Lilly could stand, if Lilly could sit. She took off Lilly's purple purse and put it on the flipper of her penguin. A little tight, but cute. She took Lilly in the stroller with her penguin when we went on walks around the neighborhood.

I can't really explain why I've kept Lilly all these years. I think the closest explanation would simply be because my mother bought her for me. And it's nice to keep the doll, the book, and the cassette tape all together as a set. Watching my daughter play with Lilly is special. Although sad, Lilly will probably not stay as pristine as I'd like if she keeps playing with her, maybe it's time Lilly fulfilled her destiny as a plush toy. 

Had my mother known that 25 years later, her granddaughter would be playing with something she bought for her daughter, she might have been more willing to buy things. If only she were here to see it...