The Traveling Bear - by Peggy

I happen to love stuffed bears. And, they love me. I have a carefully selected collection of handmade bears that are keepsakes for travels or occasions. Fortunately, our travels this past year netted several great new bears made of interesting, topical materials, including a cashmere bear from Scotland, a silk bear from Thailand and a possum-fur bear from New Zealand.

One bear, though, was on all our trips. Perry the bear is of French origin, handmade in the Provence area and "adopted" during a trip to France in 1994. He’s small and portable so he became my little travel talisman to keep a homey feeling when we were a long way from home.

As everyone knows, bears are irresistibly cute, so Perry attracted attention from maids and other hotel staff who happened to see him. When we were on a small-boat cruise in Costa Rica, the room cleaner, who happened to be male, tucked Perry into bed every night as part of our "turndown" service.

An absolute crisis occurred in Perry’s home country. Tom, who is very bear-tolerant, placed Perry on an open windowsill to let him take in the view. A gust of wind sent Perry flying out the window and me into tears. Tom, knowing trouble when it is caused by him, went running down to the street in Avignon to retrieve Perry. But, Perry wasn’t in the street, or on the curbside or in a nearby planter. We couldn’t find him anywhere!

After a time out for deductive reasoning, Tom figured out that Perry must have somehow fallen back into an open window in a lower room. Tom had to convince a desk clerk (who spoke little English) that he needed to get into other people’s rooms to look for a stuffed bear. To his credit, the clerk grabbed the keys and took up the search. They found Perry in the room three floors below us, sitting on the floor next to the window curtain. The clerk haltingly asked what Perry’s name was, and indicated great sympathy for Tom’s position, but cheered by the happy ending in the reunion of Peggy and Perry.

(Note from Tom : Perry was only a few miles from his home town and I believe to this day that he jumped.)

The rest of our travels were more enjoyable for Perry, particularly in Thailand where I found a street vendor selling tiny beach chairs that fit my bear perfectly. So, on the island of Koh Phi Phi, Perry lounged in comfort on the beach in his own chair (and hat from another street vendor). He liked Thailand!

The power of bears is well known to those of us who believe in them. Only Perry, camped out in my purse for our long airline flights, was able to bring a smile to the airport security people who would come upon him as they pawed through my carry-on purse and pack. He’s home now; like us - a little older, a little frayed but with a permanent smile on his face remembering all the fun we’ve had in our world travels.