The Reemergence of the Long-Lost Fuzzy Chick
My Aunt Kathy (my mom’s youngest sister) has been writing a weekly column about her life for decades. It’s always fun to read about my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and my mother through the eyes of the youngest child in the Altmann family.
Earlier this year she posted an article on her blog, www.lifelinesbykathy.com, about a fuzzy yellow chick that became the main character in an undeclared game of hide and seek between her older sisters, Mary (my mom) and Betty. As I read yet another amusing Altmann family tale, I was overcome with a major "aha" moment when I realized that I had the answer to the decades-long mystery. In a box of my mother's most cherished belongings was, The Fuzzy Chick.
i had the answer to the decades-long mystery: I had the Fuzzy Chick!
Before moving forward, I must backtrack:
When we were little, my sister Janice and I loved to go into the attic and snoop. We had gone through our parents' belongings so many times that their special treasures seemed like ours.
Fast forward decades later when my siblings and I were getting our parent's house ready to sell. There were many boxes full of items that were old and familiar favorites, so you can imagine our surprise when we found a box of our mom’s things that we had never seen. We were in a rush, so I took it home to sort through at a later time.
When I finally sat down to discover what new treasures were inside, I found nothing of monetary value. Instead, I found treasures of the heart and mind. There was a porcelain horse with a broken leg, Mom's first pair of eyeglasses, heart-warming notes and poems, and…the FUZZY CHICK!
Its fuzziness was matted, nose broken and off to the side (possibly from being hidden between the pages of a book), and some of the yellow had turned to a salmon color. As old and rickety as it was, it was still cute as could be.
With great excitement, I told my Aunt Kathy that I was certain that I had the chick from her story. In fact, I had had it for some time and kept it because it was cute, and it was my mom’s. After a short discussion, we concluded that her quest for the fuzzy chick's final hiding place had ended and the decades-old mystery had been solved.
