Awake, but reluctant to leave my warm, cozy bed, I rolled over and hugged my teddy bear. Betty and Mary, two of my big sisters who shared the bedroom were up and getting dressed for the day. I stared up at a window-shaped patch of sunlight on the wall above my bed. The wall had been painted a pretty color, but the bright sun and the dancing shade of a tree branch made it look even prettier. I smiled at my bear’s funny little face and kissed it.  I heard my sisters walking down the stairs and Mom asking, “Didn’t Kathy get up, too?”

I wasn’t stubborn. I just didn’t want to get up because I was comfortable. Last night when it was bedtime, I fought going to bed as usual. It was hard for me to say why I didn’t like bedtime, other than I disliked not being awake.

 “I’m not stubborn about bath-time, either,” I assured my teddy bear. Mom always had a hard time getting me to take a bath. But once she got me to sit in the warm soapy water, I loved it and never wanted to get out. I hated how cold my freshly bathed, damp body felt after a bath. That sort of cold was dreadful.

A surge of love made me hug the teddy bear and say, “I love you, Madison!”

One year ago, one of my big sisters on the verge of leaving for college became very sick. I was frightened and didn’t understand what was happening, or if she would ever get well again. I heard the grown-ups whispering things like, “brain bleed” and “…needs to go to the big University hospital in Madison.”

Weeks later, Mom announced that a miracle had happened. She prayed for my sister to be healed, and my sister ended up not needing surgery. She could now go home, but the University Hospital was far away from our farm, and Daddy was busy. My sister’s boyfriend said he’d take my mom and me to Madison to bring my sister home.

I liked my sister’s boyfriend because he was always funny and when I was around, he would pay attention to me. Despite the excitement of traveling and having Jim joking around with me, the trip to the University Hospital in Madison felt like it took forever. The hospital was so huge that while we waited for my sister’s paperwork to be done, we visited the hospital gift shop. Not only was I surprised that there was a store inside the hospital, but I discovered that it was better than my favorite stores in Marshfield: Woolworth’s and Ben Franklin’s Five and Dime.

There were so many wonderful things for sale, but what caught my attention were the stuffed toys. I had dolls at home, but not too many stuffed toys. Before I was born Mom had made a huge, floppy doll that was about as big as me. She named the doll, Ella, because she said it resembled someone she and Daddy had known at school. The only other stuffed animal we had at home was a black and white panda teddy bear. Half the size of Ella, he weighed more than double. His furry body was very firm to touch because he was stuffed with sawdust. I knew this because he had a loose arm seam where the smaller bits could fall out.

The curious thing about all the stuffed animals in the hospital gift shop was that they were all soft and cuddly. I fell in love with a ten-inch-tall, tan-colored teddy bear with black eyes, nose and a small smiling mouth. Not only was he soft and fuzzy, but he fit in my arms just right. Mom paid for him, and I named him Madison, because that was where he came from.

Remembering how Madison came to be mine made me feel happy. The bright sunlight on the wall was now lower. My belly rumbled. I playfully tugged Madison’s cute little ears and gave him another kiss. I smelled freshly baked bread coming from downstairs. Sitting up in bed, I heard Mom calling, “Kathy, come down for breakfast!” Placing Madison on my pillow, I leaped out of bed, ready for the day, happy that the dreaded bedtime was still many hours away..