Remembering the March of Dimes ...

When I was a child polio was a horrible, terrible, fearful disease and no one knew how to keep from catching it!! It was 1949 when I started Elementary School, and I distinctly remember the little cards (there's one on eBay right now, if you're interested) we all had that we saved our dimes in. Each half circle slot held a shiny dime, and when the card was full, we turned in our contribution to finding the cause and cure of this unspeakably menacing illness. I still remember how proud I was to participate in that grassroots campaign to eradicate polio.

Millions of children and adults filled up those little cards, and The March of Dimes succeeded!! In 1955 Jonas Salk and his team found a way to vaccinate people to prevent this tragic disease.

Today's charities collect huge sums through telethons and receive large checks from corporations and foundations. But polio was defeated one dime at a time.

We do make a difference. Each of us makes choices in how to use our time and money that can help or harm humanity. I don't need to pray to God to open our eyes to what each one of us can do to help someone else. That is and always has been His Will. Rather, I pray that we would not blind ourselves by the fast paced, self centered lives we lead - that we each will have eyes that see and ears that hear.

Only God knows just what we could do if we all worked for the good of others!

Our WONDERFUL 44th Wedding ANNIVERSARY

Our wedding anniversary was yesterday, and we had a wonderful time celebrating it. Actually, we started celebrating on Thursday. The National Convention of Sacred Harp Singers was in the Birmingham area and we decided to go listen to some of it Thursday morning. We knew it would be loud, so we sat on the back pew as far away from the singers as we could get. It was still loud, but we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

The soundtrack from Cold Mountain is one of my favorites and had already peaked my interest in this form of music, but I was not prepared for the emotional reaction I had to many of the hymns. I cry much more easily now anyway, thanks to my medical condition, but there were several times that I had to fight back tears of emotion while we listened, particularly on some of the slower, more majestic ones. I cannot praise God enough for the wonderful improvement in my condition I have been experiencing for the last few weeks, and the music just brought all those emotions welling up to the surface.

We had expected to stay maybe an hour.... and ended up staying the whole day. There were plenty of breaks, it was easy to slip in and out to walk around for a bit, and we ate lunch there with them, too.

Then yesterday, which happened to fall on our normal Date Day, we ate out for breakfast. We both ordered what we wanted, with no regard for price or the amount of food they would serve. And we ate almost all of it, it was so good. We went to a few yard sales and one Estate Sale, did a little shopping, went to a movie, and then ate supper at a very nice restaurant not too far from our house - one that we don't normally go to due to the cost.

We told everyone we spoke to that it was our anniversary and how long we had been married, laughed, joked, and just generally had a wonderful time together. I think I was glowing like a new bride all day long. All that has happened to us medically the last couple of years, plus all the stresses of care giving that had accumulated just seemed to melt away. We were young again, dating. And it was a glorious feeling.

Do You Believe There's Only ONE Person for Each of Us??

My wonderful hubby and I have been head over heels in love with each other since 1960. I would hate to think that there is only one perfect mate for each of us, what with all the divorced people, widowed and such, out there searching, but, in my case, I think I found him!!

And why, do you ask (you ARE asking, aren't you?) did I come up with that to blog about today? One of my blogs is a lost toy search service, as part of our Plush Animal Shoppe. We get lots of stories from parents looking for a toy that their child is just heart sick without. Sometimes we can help them, and sometimes we can't.

But I've been writing back and for to a young fellow the last few days who has one of the most heart wrenching stories of any we have ever published. With that said, here is his story, in its entirety.

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Greg is not the only one looking for this particular elephant. Try as I might, I haven't been able to locate one, or even a picture of one. He posted this heart wrenching story as a comment on a previous search request here on Plush Memories, but I just couldn't leave such a story buried in the comments!

This must have been some Elephant! My wonderful girlfriend, and soul mate, told me stories about her Elephant (which is identical to the one you're looking for) She got hers from her father as she was torn from him arms in Saudi Arabia (she's American) Her and her mother spent some time in Saudi custody before the American Embassy stepped in and had them sent back to America. The trauma was too much for her mother and my girlfriend was eventually put into an orphanage where she was separated from the only thing she had left to remember her family (her elephant). She got a letter when she was 15 telling her that her father in Saudi desperately wanted to come to her, but was killed in the process.

She cries when she talks about it, and she's pretty much come to terms with the fact that she'll never see him or her elephant again. If I can find an elephant like this one, my plan is to tie an engagement ring on a ribbon around it's neck and give it to her. It's very symbolic of "family" to her and I think would be the perfect way to tell her I want to spend forever with her and start a family with her. If anyone can help me locate this elephant it could help a beautiful young girl get some closure to a horrible childhood, and could help me give her a feeling of security for the future! Please help!

The elephant was yellow, had pink inside the ears, sang "You Are My Sunshine," and the head softly moved while it was playing. I believe it was made by Eden. Thank you so very much!

If you can help Greg find this oh so special musical elephant, please Contact Us, including #081607-1 in the subject, or Comment Here.

Searching for a toy - Originally posted 08/16/2007

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He wrote me today to thank me for making the extra post about his search, and that's what got me to thinking about how great a marriage my DH and I have, and how much I would love to help this young fellow pop the question with this Sunshine Elephant!!

Thank you so much Rosemary! Everything about this relationship has been very unexplained, how we came together, etc. We are both from very different backgrounds but I have fallen for her and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. :) As they say "there is one girl for every boy" We were lucky enough to find each other. Thanks again Rosemary. Bless your soul.

I've posted lots of sweet stories, but I can't say that I've had another one that touched me so much personally. Please pass this request link along on your blog, and let's see if we can make his dream of proposing to his "perfect girl" come true.

Playing Football at IHOP

We went to see Spider Man this last Thursday, as my Mother's Day present, as we're both big fans of the comic book genre. Mind you, I still enjoyed it, but we were both disappointed with it. The plot just doesn't seem to be there. Without plot, the special effects held little suspense, and I didn't even think the bad guys were very interesting. Thank goodness, we enjoy being with each other, and that's what made it a good day.

We went to IHOP for pancakes as a late lunch, after the movie, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. And we did what we always do. We played football with a folded up soda straw wrapper. We've been thumping that little triangle of paper back and forth on restaurant tables ever since we started dating in 1960, and we still laugh and enjoy ourselves. We don't play it in fancier restaurants, and fast food places don't leave any time for it, but with Shoney's, Denny's, IHOP, and other restaurants of that type, it's just as much a part of eating there as the food.

And oh, what memories it brings back each time we play it. It seems to touch a place where young love was blooming, and we're always closer to each other after one of our "battles." DH almost always "wins," but we aren't really keeping score. It's the ritual that counts. The waitress was one of the talkative, interested ones, and she was flabbergasted when we told her we'd been playing that game for 47 years. People just don't stay married long enough any more to have those kinds of records in their lives. I never cease to be thankful for my wonderful marriage and the time I've gotten to spend with the love of my life. I am truly blessed.