Bear hugs

I've done a little bit of charity knitting since picking up the needles, but I have nothing on a 93-year-old Wisconsin woman who has knit one hundred teddy bears for African children affected by HIV/AIDS. And she's ready to make another hundred. Talk about dedication.

I was caught off guard by how much the story moved me. I know I'm a soft touch when it comes to the heartbreaking stories about the kids who have received the bears, but it's not just that.

I didn't know either of my grandfathers, so my grandmothers, both of whom are gone, hold a special place in my memory. My maternal grandmother died when I was in second grade. One of the most precious things I have to remember her by is a teddy bear she made for me. It was one of my favorite things as a kid.

I'm sure I received other gifts from her in the short time I knew her, but most of those things are forgotten and no longer around. The teddy bear, a product of her own hands, has outlasted everything else. That strikes me as the way it should be.

There's certainly nothing wrong or impersonal about purchased gifts, but to get something that someone took the time to make for you means more, even (or maybe particularly) in the case of the African children who will never know the woman who devoted herself to knit something for them and demonstrate love in action.