Right Baby

My Uncle Oliver passed away a week ago. He was 89 years old. He had been doing some yard work and had bumped a wasp nest and they subsequently stung him over 40 times.

He went to the hospital and because of the stress caused by the wasps he had a heart attack and passed shortly thereafter. The funeral was held Saturday, October 10th, 2009. He was not the first Uncle or Aunt to pass, but it is the first time in quite some time that all of the 1st cousins have been together and it was great catching up on 40 some years. The picture is where we are waiting to have our picture taken.

So, what does that all that have to do with "Right Baby"? When I was young I had 2 dolls and I had called one "Right Baby" and the other one had come to be called "Wrong Baby". Ann, one of my cousins, remembered those dolls, as they had once been hers (something I just learned) and asked me, "Bobby, why did you called one of those dolls "Right Baby" and the other one "Wrong Baby"?

"Did you love one more than the other?"

It seems she had thought about this every once in awhile over the last 40 years. Ann and her sister Judy Lee frequently took care of me when I was little. Their Mother, Aunt Mildred, kept me supplied in comic books. I was a sickly kid and spent a good portion of the 4th grade in and out of the hospital. Aunt Mildred would visit me frequently, especially when my Mother couldn't get into town. And ever time she came she came loaded with comic books and I guess at some point in time the "Babies" came into my possession. Both babies did well and I loved them both the same.

"No, Ann, that wasn't it at all. I was sick one day and threw up on one of the dolls and she started to smell so I called her "Wrong Baby". It didn't matter how much my mother cleaned the doll she still carried that stigma [and smell] of puke with her. I ostrazied her and made her sleep at the foot of the bed and when all of the other dolls and stuffed animals were having a party she was never invited. She had to sleep at the foot of the bed."

"Oh..." Ann seemed a bit disappointed, but was glad the mystery had been solved for her.
I still have "Right Baby", "Wrong Baby" has long since passed.

"Right Baby" is the ugliest doll I have ever seen and she curretly resides in a box with her head wrapped in plastic (her head started to melt several years ago). I won't be taking her picture as I want to remember her as she was before her head started to melt.