The Adventures of Wessington Bear

 Wessie was born in a small village in England. He was a product of love from several surrogate mothers: Corarle, Francis, Helen and Margaret. He can’t remember much about his early life. Just the sound of laughter, and the soft touch of ladies hands as he was lovingly brought to life.

His first adventure started in a brown bag with very strange words on it “Canada” and even stranger “Ladysmith”. “Where on earth was Ladysmith?” the small bear wondered.

 His journey was a bit worrying,

 First The big brown bag with no window so he couldn’t see out. Then a he was thrown on a truck with letters and parcels being sent all over the world. Some of the parcels smelt very funny.” I hope I don’t smell funny”, thought Wessie.

Next he was loaded on a big airplane. He had never been on an airplane before, in fact he had never been anywhere before. The sound was terrific as the jet engines roar to life. “I will be very frightened.”  Said the small bear out load, although there was no one to hear him.

Then all at once they were flying. This was a very odd sensation, and soon the small bear started to enjoy himself.

 He remembers scraps of conversations he had heard in the dog’s room at Wessington. The voices had talked of far off lands and people and strange food and customs.

Well thought Wessie “This really is an adventure. My other bear friends can’t be having half as much fun as me”.

As the hours passed, the bear fell asleep. He was just a small bear after all.

He slept right through the landing and the customs inspector, who stamped the brown bag with a stamp marked “Passed” right on his rump. He slept through the ferry ride to a far off Island and also through the postal clearing center in Nanaimo.

He felt himself lifted and put in a metal box and heard the door snap shut. “Is this Ladysmith?” he wondered.” If this is Ladysmith, I don’t think I like it.”

 He was very alert now. He heard footsteps approach the metal box and leave again. Several times he heard different steps. Then he heard steps that stopped right outside his compartment in the metal box.

He was lifted out and his brown bag was ripped open. At first it was hard to see because his eyes weren’t accustomed to the light. The a face started to take shape. It was an ordinary face but there was something special about it too. First it looked a bit like one of his surrogate mothers, and secondly it looked at him with love. All at once, Wessie felt a flood of peace and well-being. “I am going to like it here “, he thought.

The lady, later he found her name was Patty-anne, but he preferred to call her Mom, carried him home in her arms.

 On the way she looked at each and every part of him and marveled at the beautiful way he was made. She exclaimed so much about his color, design and workmanship, that he became quite proud of himself.
At first he was placed on the china cabinet with other treasures that Mom liked to have close at hand.

From there he met the rest of Mom’s family. Jim, or Pop as he thought of him. Chris the teenager, Rover and Gypsy the dogs and Big Boyd and Widgit, the parrots .

 He thought the dogs nasty and the birds noisy, but he didn’t complain.

Soon he met a friend call Al the Alpaca and they took a tour of his new home.

He found lots to do. He could relax by the fountain and let the cool waters and lush green plants lull him into a state of contentment,

Then he could smell the flowers. These were strange flowers, not much smell, but very pretty. They attracted butterflies, which stopped for a chat and humming birds that told him of their long flights to Mexico, hitchhiking on the backs and in the slipstreams of other birds.

The nightlife was interesting. He could prop up a lamp and watch the family at their crafts and hobbies, or he could just hang about and listen to their conversation. It often included names he remembered as a baby bear back in Wessington.

And one special joy he got, was reading the pages of the lovely card that had made the journey with him.

He knew Mom enjoyed reading this card too and often he would sit on her knee and she would tell him about the people she had met and learned to love just as Wessie loved them.

But now she was telling him of new adventures, of camping, and the wild west coast where the waves were 40 feet high and the Big Bears roamed through the camp as well as wild salmon swimming in the sea and were caught and ate for dinner.

He was going with Mom. She promised she would take him with her where ever she went. And some times and the rest of the family would come too.

There would be a whole new adventure to talk about.

He thought himself quite the lucky bear indeed,