If the long-ago love tandem of Guy and Pip (remember them?) had a doll called Maria Leonora Theresa as a symbol of their on-screen love, my wife and I had Tabs.Tabs, unlike other teddy bears who are clean, have smooth fur, and generally well-groomed, is a grey teddy bear with a blue nose. He is in fact a Tatty Teddy, the official mascot and cartoon character of the product lines of Carte Blanche which include greeting cards, stuffed toys, figurines, gifts for all occasions, snow globes, mugs, among others (see the Carte Blanche site HERE).
I gave Tabs as a gift to my wife when I was still courting her. My reasoning for giving an unorthodox teddy was that Tabs was a lot like myself -- simple, scarred, endured a lot in life, quiet, patient, and had a little paunch (that little has become more than that as the years progressed unfortunately).
Tabs, as we came to call the tatty teddy
was a regular jet-setter ... often a part of the luggage when my then girlfriend went out of town on business trips. I charged Tabs with making sure Elvie was safe and that he was to protect her at all times especially come bedtime. He did.When Elvie and got married in 2004, Tabs was sort of pushed to the background and literally kept in the dark, cramped and doubled-over in the drawer of our clothes cabinet until a couple of weeks back when I remembered him.
After trying to determine where to find the little grey bear, I finally located him inside the cabinet drawer patiently awaiting rescue and quietly enduring the dust.
Off to the washing machine Tabs went and the next time I saw him was he was already a part of the groupie of stuffed toys that belonged to my little daughter. Little Ikai still has to get used to Tabs' tattered face and patches but I'm sure when she gets older, she'll appreciate Tabs, the symbol of her parents' romance ... before she was born, of course.
