"Grandpa, tell us a story. We want a story before we go to bed. Please?", said all three of my little grandchildren one night while I was staying with them for a few days.
"Ok, let's see, have I ever told you the story about Melissa's special teddy bear?", I said.
"No, I don't think so.", said little Joey, the oldest of the three. "Tell us that one."
"Well,", I said, "as I remember it, Melissa was little girl about 7 years old. She was very pretty, with light honey-colored hair, bright blue eyes, and the cutest little dimples in her cheeks whenever she smiled, which seemed to be all the time."
One day, Melissa came home from school all excited to tell her parents that the teacher had picked her to be the main tulip in the Spring play the class was putting on. There were only three tulips in the whole play and she was picked to be the yellow one -- the one that everyone liked best.
But when she got close to her house, she saw that there were lots and lots of cars, trucks, and a fire engine in front of her house. Then, she saw that some of the men were squirting water all over her house and there was an awful lot of smoke coming out of the windows.
Just then, Mrs. Campbell from across the street saw her coming down the sidewalk and ran out to meet her. "Oh, Melissa, come over here with me.", she said. You need to stay out of the way until the firemen leave. Come on, your mom is here in my house, too."
Melissa ran into Mrs. Campbell's house, saw her mom was sitting in the living room in a big chair, and ran over to give her a hug like she did every day after school. Except that today, she could see that her mom was crying.
"Why are you crying, Mama? Aren't the firemen doing a good job?", Melissa asked.
Melissa's mom just grabbed her in a big hug and sobbed, "Oh, Melissa, your room and the play room are all burned up. Everything in your room is gone, even your favorite dolls. I'm so sorry."
"Grandpa, I don"t like that story. It makes me sad. But you didn"t say anything about Melissa's teddy bear. Did you forget that part?", said Katie, the youngest of my grandchildren.
"Well, Katie. It IS a sad story. Melissa felt so bad about losing all of her favorite dolls that she cried and cried for the longest time. Mrs. Campbell felt so bad that she gave Melissa a special teddy bear that she had been keeping ever since her own daughter grew up and moved away."
Melissa took the teddy bear and scrunched her little face into the bear's soft brown fur and soon stopped crying. Mrs. Campbell said that she could keep the bear for as long as she wanted.
"Does she still have that teddy bear?", Joey asked.
"Yes, she does, Joey. She is OUR Melissa, and I'M that teddy bear."