My teenage boys will never forgive me for “The Velveteen Rabbit.” They insist they remain emotionally scarred, over a decade after first hearing it.
“But the rabbit becomes real!” I protest.
“Mom! The boy doesn’t get to be with his best friend EVER AGAIN! How is that a happy ending?”
Needless to say, we take our love of Loveys very seriously. We have Lovey stories that run the gamut from tragic to comedic to touching, yet somehow all tear-jerking.
There’s the one where we created our own neighborhood Amber Alert for the missing dolphin, only to find him tangled in a laundry load of beach towels. The one where we thought we lost the dolphin forever, until a superhero disguised as a restaurant owner rescued it and kept it safe until we could come collect it. The one where we realized more packing supervision was required when, upon arrival at a weeklong Caribbean vacation, someone sheepishly admitted that his suitcase basically contained 24 Loveys and a swimsuit. The endless battle to fit one medium sized boy and 78 Loveys on a twin bed continues to this day.
The most recent one? The oldest moved away this summer to play baseball but insisted he couldn’t play as well without sleeping on his (large, pillow-sized) stuffed dog. So, we put the dog in an actual pillowcase and off they went. Upon discovery, the main reactions of teammates were “oh, your lucky dog” and “man, I wish I’d brought mine,” leading me to believe that a) baseball players’ superstitions are weird but very real and b) there is hope for all of humanity if this is the main reaction to a Lovey by a bunch of “dudes.”
This truly cements our belief that we are not alone in our love of Loveys. No matter who we talk to, we find that pretty much everyone has a Lovey story – their children’s, their siblings, their own – so we are collecting them. We want to share as many Lovey stories as possible! If you have one that you want to share, please send it to: [email protected]. We will feature a new story every month.
Join us in making this world a softer, more loving place for as many children (and children at heart) as possible, because we never truly grow out of that need for unconditional love and acceptance and we all deserve it!
“But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”
“The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh” by A.A. Milne
