RAPUNZEL

Am I a "dolly" person?  Uh, uh!  Except for a couple special dolls as a young-ish kid, I was a tree-climber, jackknife keeper, quarterback football player, and lots of other intense tomboy behaviors.

Except for a few "girly" gifts I put in my daughter's life, I simply didn't head that way.

Now?  I have several dolls.  Why?  My Mom had them.  She started purchasing the dolls about 25 years ago.  I've never known why, and it certainly didn't seem to fit her personality, but when I dropped into her apartments in Tacoma, sometimes dolls were on shelves.  Then, shortly after I arrived another time, what I discovered was that she had put the dolls in a storage area, and damage was occurring to her boxes and she was worried.  

Not long after that, when I had driven out there from Omaha, she decided I, the oldest of her girls, should bring boxes home with me and keep the dolls in a safe place.  We loaded my car and I took a bunch.  The next couple years, the same thing happened.  I ended up with a pile of boxes in my basement.  I usually dug through them to just check them out, but rarely entered a "love zone". Occasionally, however, I did put the more fragile ones in a curio cabinet to keep them in a safe place, not buried under each other.

When Mom died, January 30, 2011, I waited until Spring to drive out there.  My car was loaded with those boxes of dolls.  My sisters and nieces went through them and took what they wanted.  [I had given some to my daughter and granddaughters before I left.]

There is one, however, that I did not take out there and no one could have had.  Another "UH, uh!"  Why?  It reminds me more of mom and I than any of the others. She is Rapunzel.  She lives very comfortably in my curio cabinet.  No one picks on her or orders her to do something ridiculous, as was the case of the fairy tale.  When I die my daughter or granddaughters will have her.  But not until then.  SHE IS MINE!!  

 Why would I be so selfish, so materialistic?   For a stretch of time, at one of mom's apartment buildings, she was on the 2nd floor and facing the street with a balcony.  When I arrived and needed to go inside, I would stand on the grass down below and holler, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, throw down your key."  Mom always came out and tossed it, and she grinned.  [A few years ago, the building was changed so it had a security system in place and the keys no longer worked.]  

Even though the new security manner was safer, I was disappointed,  Why?  It was nice to see mom grin, which was not a common experience between the two of us during the vast majority of our lifetime.

Ever since then, for at least 10 years, Rapunzel has lived at my house.  And though many would consider my attitude silly, I consider her a "God-gift". 

I can never walk through my living room and pass the cabinet on the way to the kitchen and not see Rapunzel.  And any time I see her, she reminds me of my mom, and my eyes light up, rejoicing that the day will come when I will see mom in heaven and we'll be grinning at each other... Big Time.  Forever and ever.