S - Sammy the Teddy Bear

 

Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey

Sammy the Teddy Bear is the physical manifestation of Sammy the Teddy Bear in my mom's children's books A Gregory Green Adventure Series. I bought him for my mom in 2017 to have fun with my mom and to promote her children's books.

My mom and I had a ton of fun with Sammy. He’s badass. See for yourself:

Sammy went to book events.

He has his own Wookie backpack.

He rode on a witch's broom.

He sat in Santa's chair. Twice.

He watched Game of Thrones (but not the X-rated moments).

He plays Monopoly with friends.

And has tea parties.

He bakes.

He fishes for cats.

He stole Thistle's wings one Halloween.

(FYI: Thistle is from my mom's middle grade series A Bad Fairy Adventure Series, and I've cosplayed her for fun.)

When my mom passed away, Sammy sat in the corner of my bed for a while to keep me company. In May 2023, a close friend of mine and my mom took me to the beach so we could do a photoshoot with Sammy. The photos will be used one day when I publish my mom's next picture book (posthumously). Just like when my mom and I took pictures of Sammy's shenanigans, I had a lot of fun doing his beach photoshoot.

Here's a couple photos:

I still dress Sammy up for the holidays and seasonally and switch up his ties. He hasn't had much action lately, but I do want to start promoting my mom's books again and along with that I want to share silly photos of Sammy, so he'll be back in action eventually.

I have to admit, though, it's not as much fun doing it by myself, and that's why I haven't done it yet. But maybe once I begin, I'll enjoy it again. We'll see.

UPDATE: Sammy is now taking car rides with me. January of this year, I was in a car accident. (This is not something I've shared anywhere else.) When I got a new car and drove it to and from work for the first time, I was a bit nervous and had a thought that I wished I had a passenger to keep me company.

When my mom passed away, driving was a sad occasion because she was no longer sitting in that passenger seat and wouldn't ever sit there again. I had that thought that day, and it happened to be the same day I wrote this post, so I thought of Sammy. He's been pretty lonely sitting in his chair in my office where I don't venture often, so I took off his little elf costume for the holidays, put on his jeans and sweater vest, and slipped his backpack onto his shoulders. The next morning, I tucked him into the passenger's seat. I enjoy seeing him there.

ALL A TO Z POSTS:

A - ASMR

B - Beach

C - Church

D - Donating

E - Epistle (Letter from Heaven)

F - Facebook Posts

G - Grief Share

H - Haiku Poetry

I - Imari

J - Job (New Job)

K - Kitchen Time

L - Ladybug Rocks #LadyBugRocksFL

M - Miracle Moments

N - Nature

O - Our Story (Keepsake Journal)

P - Playlist + Photo Collages

Q - Quiet (Reading) Time

R - Removing and Redecorating

S - Sammy the Teddy Bear