Victor my Teddy Bear

I was lying down on my bed before going to sleep one night when I noticed my very old stuffed animal, Victor. Victor was given to me in 1982, I had barely turned 6 years old and had lost my Dad about a month ago. I can't remember who gave it to me but I do remember aunts and uncles asking me what his name was going to be. I told them his name would be Victor in memory of my Dad. This bear has the saddest face that you have ever seen and at that age we can come up with the craziest ideas about everything. I told everybody that he was sad because my daddy had died :) I remember most of the people in the room got really sad and started to cry, I didn't understand what the big deal was then. This Teddy Bear has been there for me ever since (except for a couple of years) and he has heard me cry, laugh and knows all my secrets. When ever I was sad or had a hard time at school, I would hug him and everything seemed so much better. I didn't tell anybody I slept with him at night and my Mom thought it was a foolish thing to do. I had a huge collection of stuffed animals before I got married (more than 20) and it was hard for me to leave them behind, but Victor was coming with me no matter what. My Mom saw it in my suitcase and told me to get it out and to realize that I was a grown woman about to get married and to not bring it with me. I agreed to it and left it behind. Of course that very night I realized what a big mistake that had been. Time went by and I still missed him, specially when I didn't have anything that reminded me of home and then one day I met this sister that had a box full of stuffed animals and told me how she kept them all since she was little. I didn't feel so silly anymore and decided that I wanted my Teddy Bear with me, so when I went back to visit my Mom for the first time, I was a woman on a mission. I told her how much the bear meant to me and that I was going to bring him back with me and I didn't care if she thought I was silly, she actually helped me look for it and we found him all dusty and still sad, but I was happy. My mom washed him and got it all fluffy again, we gave it to Shayna to play with it and I think that is when my Mother finally realized that this silly old bear was very important to me. He is been back with me since that day and I am not planning on letting it go again, yes I might be silly or childish, but this bear helped me through some tough times.
So here is a picture of Victor, 27 years old, about 10" tall, dark brown and tan with the saddest eyes that I have ever seen. By the way, I don't hug him at night anymore, I have Dan now.