Be the besst role model you can be
Marie Snider
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Last Saturday, I had a nostalgic trip down memory lane as I opened a box that had not been opened for years.
I knew all the time what was in that long slender box on the third shelf of our storage room in the basement. Although I had saved two of my girlhood dolls, somehow it never seemed very important to look at them.
What motivated me to look at the dolls now was an email from a woman I knew as a girl - Anna Mae Forrester Weaver - about her favorite childhood doll named Marie.
As a girl, I loved my dolls very much. So most of them were well “used.” My baby doll was still intact, but I was very surprised that my beautiful Dorothy doll had only one arm. The other arm was beside Dorothy in the box.
Dorothy is more than two feet tall and has real hair, styled in soft ringlets. Named after my mother, she has painted blue eyes with eyelids that open and close with real eyelashes. Her delicate mouth has tiny teeth and a little tongue.
Except for her missing arm, Dorothy is still beautiful. And she still brings back wonderful childhood memories.
But it sounds as though Anna Mae’s Marie has fared much better over the years. No dusty box in the basement for her!
“She reclines in my doll buggy in our bedroom, in very good condition at nearly 60 years old!” wrote Anna Mae.
“She has been loved for many years, and was carefully handled by our daughters and now the grandchildren - very carefully like a newborn!”
I was flattered and surprised when Anna Mae told how she named her doll.
She wrote, “When I was 10, I got what was to be my last doll for Christmas, and I named her ‘Marie’ after you! The name ‘Marie’ is written on the bottom of her shoe.”
A few years my junior, Anna Mae said, “I thought you were a real special person - maybe you were close to being a teenager, or were there already.”
Just imagine that! After all these years, Anna Mae had the grace to tell me I had been her role model.
It made me think of the many role models I have had over the years. Vera Peck, my grade school teacher. My wonderful Aunt Naomi. Helen Good Brenneman, an author and my college roommate. Dr. Harold Bender, the dean of seminary when I was a student. Dr. Carol Oukrop, my major professor in journalism graduate school. And Martha Voth, a beautiful gracious lady several years past 100, who attends my church.
The list could go on. Unlike Anna Mae, I have never told any of them how they influenced my life. Now, many are gone.
What about you? Who have been your role models? A favorite teacher. A special uncle. A long-time friend. A co-worker or boss. A surrogate grandmother. Have you ever told them?
More important, think about whom you have been an inspiration to, and still may be. Remember, you’re never too old to be a role model to individuals both younger and older than yourself.
Marie Snider is an award-winning healthcare writer and syndicated columnist. Write Marie Snider at thisside60@aol.com or visit her website at www.visit-snider.com