Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I’ve had Ted, my teddy bear, all my life (or very close to it; pictures of me with Ted when I was an infant: https://rhondabracey.com/2010/03/14/i-found-my-bear/). For the last couple of decades he has sat on a shelf looking a little the worse for wear. His arms, legs, and neck were quite floppy where the wood wool that was used to stuff him oh-so-long-ago had either compressed or disintegrated completely.

I’ve been watching the UK TV show ‘The Repair Shop’ for a while now, and the two teddy bear restorers there have done such wonderful work, giving life back to tired-looking (and in some cases, almost wrecked) bears, that I decided I should really get Ted rejuvenated as well. I found two teddy bear restorer places in Perth, but only one responded to my enquiry via their online form within a few hours (BTW, several months later and I still haven’t heard from the other one!). So after sending Brigit a picture of Ted, she gave me an approximate quote and we arranged a time for me to come to Perth to drop him off. I was impressed with some of the website photos of the restorations she’d done, and after meeting her I felt comfortable leaving Ted with her for the month or so before she could get to him.

A few weeks later and he was fixed (including a new growler!). My sister brought him down to my Dad’s 90th birthday and gave him back to me (though she did say he was so handsome she might keep him — some sibling rivalries never die!). Ted can now sit up on his own and Brigit added a lovely black bow giving him a certain extra charm.

He was always a handsome and kindly bear. Now he is even more so.

For those in Western Australia, he went to Brigit at https://www.brigitbears.com/. The cost for the restoration was around $100 and the growler was another $30, which I thought was a small price to pay to give him many more decades of life.

Before

After