True love

This sad looking stuffed tiger was once a beautiful yellow with bold black stripes. He had a different face and a strong body. I was given him on my first Christmas and he became my most treasured friend and confidant. When I was four and had my tonsils out and he was forgotten at home he had a taxi ride to my side in the middle of the night. When I was seventeen and we moved from New Brunswick to Ontario he rode in the car with us. No way would I trust him to a moving company. He has heard all my secrets and caught many tears.
When my daughter was about one she was given Taggy as a gift. Not surprisingly she fell into love immediatly and he became even more worn down. His ears are mostly gone and the face my Mother sewed on so lovingly began to wear away.
She had to stop sleeping with him because we were afraid he would fall apart completly. He still holds our hearts and always will. She says he will be buried with her. I said the same until I met my beautiful little girl who I knew would love him as I did. This is a quote from one of my favorite books and I can't think of anyone it suits more. Love you Taggy, always:)

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”
― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit