Edward Bear, Cuddles and Blue were all teddy bears living in the toy cupboard of the Stuart family. Jeremy, Jane and Betty were all grown up and didn't really visit the toy cupboard nowadays. The three bears sat neglected on the shelf feeling bereft of their children's hugs and kisses.
Edward Bear had been Jeremy's favourite. He once had golden fur which was now rather grubby and bald. One ear was hanging off and one paw had lost its soft velvet cover. Cuddles had belonged to Jane who had always taken her teddy to bed with her; Cuddles had pink fur and wore a red dress with white spots on. The colours were quite outstanding and it was easy to find the bear in amongst all the other toys.
Blue had been bought for Betty from the Build-a-Bear Factory. She had chosen the blue fur body, the factory had filled it so that it was soft and cuddly and Mummy had bought some little shoes and a satchel for it. Betty took Blue everywhere with her and whenever she visited her Granddad, Blue's head could be seen peeping out of Mummy's bag so Blue could be shown to and admired by Granddad.
All that was some years ago and Cuddles had reported that she heard the family talking about a new house. The three bears were full of consternation. Were they going to be taken to the new house or would they meet with some other fate?
The day of the house move came and the toy cupboard shook with the sounds of boxes and furniture being lifted and carried to the big moving van parked outside the house.
Suddenly the toy cupboard opened and Daddy appeared. Peering into the cupboard, he shouted, 'What's going to happen to this lot then?'
'Oh, they'll just have to go to the Charity Shop,' shouted Mummy. If the bears could have moved, they would have huddled together in fright. Daddy reached in and grabbed all the toys. Gradually the cupboard was emptied and the contents crammed into several tea chests. Edward Bear was in one chest and the other two were squashed together into the other one.
'When shall we three meet again?' mourned Edward Bear as he felt the tea chest lifted and conveyed to a waiting car.
His tea chest was carried to one charity shop in the village and the other went to an animal charity shop further down the road.
'I didn't even get to say good bye to the children,' thought Edward Bear. 'I wonder if they know what happened to us all.'
The 'children' were now aged 18, 20 and 23 and no longer interested in teddy bears. They had other interests nowadays: girlfriends, boyfriends, iphones, ipads, football, high heels, etc. Jane, however, was madly in love with Karl, a member of a popular boy band. She had met him at a pop concert at the O2 when she waited around at the stage door for his autograph and when he appeared, she tripped in her high heels and fell at his feet. He was most impressed with this adoration and asked her out on a date.
All went well with the relationship and soon they were engaged to be married. However, the agent suggested that they keep their impending marriage a big secret for the sake of the band's publicity and popularity with the fans. Jane wasn't very keen on this idea but she went along with it.
They were secretly married and set up home in a penthouse apartment overlooking the River Thames in London. Very soon Jane realized that she was expecting the patter of tiny feet but was still advised to keep their marriage a secret. Very difficult as her bump began to grow and baggy jumpers didn't entirely hide it. Her mother and father were rather indignant about the secrecy but went along with it for Jane's sake.
Along came twins Liza and Jake and now it was impossible to be quiet about Karl's marriage much to the anguish of the adoring fans. However, the Press had a field day with photos of the twins in Karl and Jane's arms and Jane could proudly walk around with her twin buggy showing off her beautiful children.
Jane did not see her parents for a time as she followed her husband on his tours, taking the children with them, but when the twins were about four years old, Jane returned to her village to visit her parents and they all got round to the subject of their childhood toys and what had happened to them. Jane was sorry that they had gone to nearby charity shops and agreed that they must have been bought for other children in the neighbourhood a long time ago
Jane said goodbye to her parents, strapped the twins into her posh car, started the engine and with a wave, she set off on the journey back to London. As she passed the end of the road, she noticed a street market with many stalls selling all sorts of bric-a-brac. Jane couldn't resist a market and she parked the car, put the twins in their buggy and began walking through the market.
Suddenly, her son Jake was getting very agitated and she looked around to see what was the problem. He was pointing to a blue bear on a toy stall and he was shouting 'Auntie Betty's bear.' Jane looked over to the stall and realized that Jake was recognising the bear that had appeared in so many photos of her childhood when pictured with Betty who was always holding the blue bear.
'Oh, Jake, how clever of you. Yes it is just like the bear that Auntie Betty had when she was a little girl.' By now his twin sister Liza had noticed the bear and was also holding out her arms to it. Jane just couldn't resist it. She bought the bear for a nominal sum and the twins were all smiles again.
When she got home, Liza insisted on going to sleep with Blue in her arms and Jane rang her sister to tell about their acquisition. Betty visited them the next day and when she looked at the bear she was certain it was Blue by recognizing some of its worn patches and a lollypop stain on its back. She could hardly contain her delight and was pleased that the twins had fallen in love with her old friend.
'I wonder what happened to the other bears?' mused Jane.
Meanwhile Blue was also delighted to be back with his old family and thought, just as Edward Bear had thought, 'When shall we three meet again?'
When her husband, Karl, came home from one of his performances with the band, he was amused at the story of the Blue bear but thought it was a bit tatty compared with the beautiful toys which many of his fans had sent for the twins.
'Why do you let them have that battered old thing?' he asked Jane. She just smiled and shook her head. She was secretly pleased that her children loved the old bear.
Her brother, Jeremy, had become a very successful businessman, living in Newcastle, and rarely visited his parents or siblings. However, their mother became unwell and Jeremy felt obliged to return home to see what the situation was. His mother had become quite frail and he wanted her to be treated in a nearby private hospital but she preferred to be at home so he did his best to persuade her to have a private nurse visit regularly to look after her. She agreed to this and Jeremy went to an agency to set this up.
Nurse Angela arrived the next day. She was very motherly, but matter of fact and efficient. Jeremy's mother began to hallucinate somewhat and Nurse Angela listened to her and made appropriate remarks where it was needed. One thing that the patient kept on about was Cuddles. She kept asking for Cuddles and the Nurse thought she wanted to be hugged, so did so, but the patient shrugged her off and still asked for Cuddles.
Betty lived within a short drive of her mother. She was now a secretary in a car hire company and lived in a small apartment. She had a boyfriend but there was no talk of marriage at the moment. Jeremy rang her to tell her of their mother's condition and Betty promptly drove over to her parent's house. When the Nurse told her of her mother's insistence on wanting Cuddles, Betty smiled and suggested it could be Jane's favourite bear when she was a little girl. The Nurse wondered what could be done about it and so did Betty.
Then Betty suggested they put an advertisement in the local paper as Cuddles had been sent to a local charity shop. After all, the description: 'Cuddles had pink fur and wore a red dress with white spots on' was fairly distinctive.
Sure enough they had a response from a local Nursery School who were sure they had Cuddles at the back of their toy cupboard. The bear was rather faded and worn but certainly met the description. Betty went along to the school, gave them a donation and marched home triumphantly to her mother. Unfortunately, her mother wasn't very impressed with the faded bear and promptly rejected it.
Betty visited her sister Jane taking Cuddles with her. Jane was once again delighted to find her old playmate and the twins seemed to take to this addition to their toy collection. Karl was as before rather scornful of this faded plaything.
So where was Edward Bear?
'Hi,' said Blue to Cuddles, 'Where have you been all this time and have you ever come across Edward Bear?' Cuddles could not come up with any information on Edward's whereabouts.
Jane rang Jeremy once he had returned to Newcastle and in the course of the conversation about their mother, she told him about the coincidence of the two bears coming together now in her house.
'Oh,' said Jeremy, 'then you might want Edward Bear then.'
'Do you know where he is then?'
Of course,' replied Jeremy, rather shamefacedly, 'I bought him years ago when I spotted him in a Boot Sale near home. I couldn't resist buying him back. He was in a bit of a mess but I got a local Teddy Bear Hospital to spruce him up and he is now as good as new. Would the twins like him?'
'That would be wonderful,' said Jane.
So the three bears were re-united. Edward Bear was almost unrecognizable now that he had been smartened up, but he deigned to meet his old friends again and they were back to the hugs and kisses from the twins which made them feel that they would all live happily ever after.