Collector Dolls

Almost everyone has something they collect. Though some would think that I collect dust bunnies, I do have other things that I like to buy and keep in a collection. Some of the most common things that people collect are memorabilia from a singer or actor, stamps, plates, and coins. Some collect knick-knacks in a certain theme. There is something about building a collection that is very pleasing, though I can't explain why that is. My daughter has stash of collector dolls that are waiting for her when she is old enough to care for them, and I hope that she loves them as much as her mother did.

My little girl was born to my sister in law, who died a few weeks after her daughter was born. Despite this, that baby has grown into a very normal and very well-adjusted five year old girl. She know calls me mommy, but she knows of her birth mother, and she will always know about her. Her birth mother had a lot of collector dolls, and she loved them very much. When she left this world, we tried to think of what would be good to save for her daughter and what we should part with to help my brother cope. The collector dolls were the first things we decided to save.

She had been saving her collector dolls since she was very young. Her parents started the collection for her, and that is the one thing that they did right. She had so many that half of them were in storage. These went to my dad's house after she died, and they are being saved for when my daughter is older. Though she cannot handle them right now, I can understand in the future where she might want to have this part of her birth mother near her, as it is all she has. She doesn't even have any memories of her own, and can only hear ours.

The collector dolls keep coming. Each year someone gets a new one, and we put them away with the rest of them for when she is old enough to have them. Last year someone got her an angel that looks an awful lot like her birth mom. It must have taken them forever to find it, and I cried when I saw it. It was one of the most beautiful collector dolls I had ever seen, and perhaps I think that just because it reminds me of her. There are some collections that are valuable in a monetary sense, but this one is valuable in a far more important way.