Memento

When my folks house burned down in august, in their garage were all of my childhood toys. My sister and I had a massive collection of My Little Ponies.I think everyone has a favorite toy growing up and for my sister and me it was, with out a doubt, our Ponies.


D & I are very close in age. Growing up we spent a lot of time in our room playing together. We'd spend hours playing out these epic adventures and captivating melodramas, always with our ponies at the center of the plot. It's one of my fondest memories of childhood. It's probably the closets my sister & I ever were to each other or I imagine we ever will be.


I hadn't thought much about our ponies since I moved out of my parents house but I knew they were safe & I always imagined D & I would go through them at some point. I figured we'd give some away, save one or two special ones for ourselves and maybe give some to our children.


After the fire I knew they were gone, but I was so busy trying to make sure my parents were alright and count my blessings for the things that hadn't burned, i.e my wedding dress, my mothers jewelry, I just didn't have time to think about silly mementos from the past.


Now that my folk's house is nearly rebuilt, mom has been working hard to remember everything that burned in the fire so her insurance company can reimburse her. You'd think they'd just give her a lump sum but no, she actually has to send them an itemized list. Both my sister and I have been trying to help her. I put together a list of the 100+ children's books we had in the garage (another favorite childhood memory, bookstores & libraries) and my sister has been putting together a list of our ponies that have turned out to be collectible & some of them worth a little bit of money.

Yesterday when I got home from the bout there was a package that had arrived for me in the mail. It didn't say who it was from and I couldn't think of any online purchases I'd made recently so my curiosity was certainly peaked. When I opened the package it's hard to explain the range of emotion I went through.

At first I didn't entirely realize what it was. I saw this little pony face staring back at me but being that was about the last thing on the planet I expected to be staring back at me, it took a moment for me to process. So I pulled the little pony out of the bag and just stared at her. The gears in my head turning in 100 different directions. Who would send me this? Wait, which pony is this? I looked down at the package she had come in and read the words, Firefly. Firefly? OMG this wasn't just any vintage My Little Pony, this was Firefly! She was my favorite, most special pony!

In case you're not a 30 year old girl or you didn't play with ponies, Firefly was in the 2nd gen of ponies release in 1983. She went on to star in the 1984 made for TV Pony movie. Making her ever the more special to me.

So as I sat there staring at my pony, having all of these memories rush back to me it suddenly all became more than I could bare and I burst into tears. Now, I know what you're thinking. Was I seriously crying over a plastic pony? Hey look, we all know it's not about the pony.

At 1st I was baffled. Who would send me such a thing? Mom & I had been talking about the ponies so maybe she could have sent it to me but how could she have known to send me Firefly? To the outside observer it would have appeared that I loved all my ponies equally or at least intermittently. I couldn't fathom my mom remembering this one pony out of all the others. And there are literally hundreds of ponies that were made in the 80's. Could my mom somehow have just lucked out and ordered the perfect one for me?

Then I realized it just had to be my sister. She's the only one who could have known. Now, if you're wondering why I'd be a little baffled at my sister sending such a thought gift. We just don't talk much and don't get a long very well most of the time. I just didn't expect her to bust out with something something so sweet and well, perfect. It made my night. Hell, it made my week. It was a moment where I thought just maybe there is hope that we might be close again one day. Anyway, I just hope she knows how much I truly and deeply appreciated it. This is one pony I plan to keep safe and treasure always.