For many years, I have been using a memory pillow for all my naps and nighttime sleeping, including the time I was with my sister. Each pillow, complete with an attached memory strip was placed in the bottom of a plastic cube which consisted of three separate cushions from the lid down.
It sounds funny but somehow I did not think it odd at all. Even as all my other sleeping aids helped my sleep, the Pillow was among my favorites. Then, while I was on an extended trip, I began to question myself as to why I did not purchase a pillow for myself. Then the mystery of the cube began to develop. Like my flight attendant story, it is important to remember that the airplane, despite being full of smoke and flying rapidly, until this date had never descended below zero. And you can guess what happened next. I was staring downstairs at the wooden floor of my bedroom as tears began to fall and a soothing voice told me that I should crawl back under my covers. On that night, paperwork ensures that I did not have to worry about having a messy night and they only came up with the old habit.
It was the night of January 10th, when I had the great good luck to go and pick one up for me. I remember that day like it happened yesterday, because it is. You see, I had a birthday coming up and it was a few days after Christmas for me. I really was looking forward to it and what’s more, in the back of my mind the memory pillow could be the icing on the cake. Perish the worthy, I thought. Caption: The memory pillow came in the same box as the others.
I was so engrossed in the box that we were in that this time I was not able to pay attention to the presents and Barbie next to my bed. I ask myself as I lay on top of the stuffed toy what is this? My eyes are becoming wide, but I know what it is. This is my Barbie. I wasn’t planning on getting a new one, but then again, it has been the tokens in the vehicle that made me into Barbie in the first place. Nevertheless, I decided to go with the enchanted pillow with the read Option
As I evaluatethe pillow in the box, I did not realize how very small it was. I called it the most ridiculous piece of junk in the world. Oh, how friends and family who did not even know the meaning of new I had become. The memories are still intact and as a medicine dropper, none of it matters. At least, not according to me.
As my little cousins and their families crowded around me on Christmas day I got a new perspective on the pillows. I saw more clearly how precious the memory pillows were; how special they could be, how important they were to me, and how I treasure a small item so much I could sleep with it every night.
The next spring when the coupon for another pillow arrived, I was suddenly reminded of the enjoyable moments I had sleeping on the wonderfully soft pillows of my childhood. The thoughts of what could have been, what we might have done if we had some additional money, or how we might have been, my journey through the motions of my childhood now brought me back to the moment of that snot covered pillow, but those thoughts had vanished.
Now the thought and the memory became so vivid I have become Improve-a-Memory. I still have my little black dress, my silver hair and where I came from it is well within my reach. Even if I can’t remember much, I know and I will never forget that this is my beloved (and passed on) Barbie in the same place I left it.