My daughter is almost 7 years old.  She is born on March 5, 1976.  The world is invaded by the Cabbage PatchKid Dolls.

- “ I promised you, my little Bikounitta, that for your birthday, we will get you a Cabbage PatchKid Doll.... I know, I know, you want a girl.”

- Promise, Mom, promise, I know you always keep your promises.

Time flies, and we get closer to March 5.  I thought that it was time to go somewhere and purchase this famous doll which is going to offer so much joy o my youngest child.   The search starts... and I realize that that this economic world in which we live is creating serious problems in families: I have to find one, It si almost a question of honor.  Montreal, New York, Paris, Toronto.....They simply are not available.  The stores announce a waiting list of two to three months.  

It is impossible.  My promise... G’d,,Where is the solution. This situation was becoming critical.   I had told Rebecca, that it will be a present form her grand-mothers.   My mother passed away, just few weeks ago.   I have been away from home for more than five weeks.   This separation was very hard on my Baby who does not understand yet, the concept of death, of total disappearance of a human being that you have cherished your all life.  Days after days, for more than five weeks, I sat at my mother’s bed, listening to the continuous and tedious sound of the up down of this pump: up, down, up, down, up, down, and a kind of life in existence.  Oxygen is insufflated in her lungs, and she is alive.....but, does she knows that I am here, next to her, does she feel something, does she hear me, Does she need something.... All these questions which remain without answers.   Life is here, and life disappear.  Saturday, around 6:00 p.m., David leaves us and is on his way to have dinner.  Few minutes, she is white, and lifeless.  I scream and call the nurse. 

- “It’s over, it was too much for this poor woman, I loved.”

-  What do you mean?

- It’s over, she is not with us anymore.

She looks at me, and reach Bronias’ wrist, take off the watch, a Tissot, and her ring and hand them to me. 

David is back.  He enters the room and hold his mother’s hand.  he cries silently, I give him the Jewelry and leave this hospital room where she stayed for more than a year and half... on her back, but decided to have an outside life, listening to music, eating outside food, drinking coffee brought from outside, having her done, her nails polished, her hair cut and combed....

They have to help me find this doll, that I promised to my daughter.  I just, imagine that it is part of their responsibility.

Yael seems so disoriented, the necessity of finding the doll becomes for her primordial.   The last tentative is to call a Toys’ R Us store located in Chula Vista.   They just, received seventy of them.  No order can be taken other the phone.   We get into the car, without evaluating the Day, Friday, The time, The evening. It is almost Shabbat.   After a forty-five minute drive, and Rebecca announcing with no interruption he desires to have a girl.  We enter the store, and we can discover behind a glass cage the dolls, boys and girls gently aligned and resting in their cardboard boxes.   Payment is required first, selection is not permitted.  You pay, and you get what you get.   Finally, Rebecca is holding her new baby girl, and looks so happy.  What a relief.   We are on our way back home, and the need of opening the box becomes intolerable for Rebecca.  She wants to discover her name, she wants to touch her, to hug her.  She wants probably to make tangible this present that her grandmothers are offering her.   Gilberta is her name.  Sher wears blue pans decorated with small colored flowers.  Gilberta, I love her.  Gilberta,, Gilberta,  a strange feeling is enveloping me.

It is Saturday morning.  It is time for David, to be introduced to Gilberta.  His face whitens, his breathing becomes difficult.  His voice becomes unsettle.  Gilberta.. Gilberta... The market has covered the entire world of Cabbage PatchKid Dolls, more than three million of them.   Gilberta.  My mother’s name was Gillette, and David mother’s name was Berthe.