The Chronicles of the youngest Child - My brother Raj's birthday to a young me - my doll from Italy

 

Ceramic vase made by Marie-Therese Duplicy

As a child, I was quite spoilt by my siblings. Yes, Yes, the privileges of being a baby compared to older siblings has its advantages and definitely  these made me forgive the some odd disadvantages easily. My eldest brother was 14 years older than me. We lost him 6 years back to cancer and it's another big loss I've had to deal with and overcome in the last few years.

Luckily for me my mind and my heart are full of stories of how Raj was an ideal son to our parents and how he gave me so many things that no one else could afford in my family at that time. 

One of my earliest memories was when Raj travelled to Europe for work. It was already a great honour for him and our family that he had been chosen by his boss to represent their company at an international congregation that covered several countries in Europe. He would be travelling to Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany as far as I remember. On top of that he was just 21 years old and had not had the job for a long time either. So, he had evidently impressed his boss a lot and was being entrusted with a lot of responsibility. He was gone for about a month and we had no news of course because back then we had no phone at home. We just trusted that he was well and would soon return back home safely.

I remember the morning he returned really well. I woke up to him being home and being handed the most beautiful doll ever! She had blue eyes and blonde hair that was set in two braids. She wore a bonnet and an absolutely stunning beige and white dress. Her face and hands were made of some solid plastic material, the kind I had never seen before and the rest of her body was stuffed and made of cloth. She held a steady happy gaze and her lips were the cutest pink lips I'd seen till then. She was so beautiful, so pretty and so unique. No one in my building has a doll like her and I felt a lot of pride as I cradled her in my arms. I called her 'Rosalie' almost immediately even though I didn't know anyone with that name. I guess she looked like a delicate rose to me. Rosalie was spotted in a shop by an Italian colleague of my brother. He asked my brother to pick her up for me. Rosalie stayed my favourite doll for many years and I still have great memories of playing with her.

Today is my brother Raj's birthday and he would have been 61 yrs old today. Luckily memories don't die when people do and we can honour the lost souls by thinking about them and enjoying bygone days.

Ceramic vase made by Marie-Therese Duplicy

The inside of the vase