杰奎琳·希奇/Jacqueline Hickey
When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family (two children, eight grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and two great-greatgrandchildren). Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
One chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were settling in for a long visit with“GG,”as the family calls her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.
“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,”she told a wide- eyed Meagan,“I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“She had an exquisite, hand-painted porcelain face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue as blue could be, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost reverent tone.“My doll was dressed in a dainty pink gown, trimmed with fine lace. But what I especially remember was her petticoat. It was fine batiste, trimmed with rows and rows of delicate lace. And the tiny buttons on her boots were real. Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me—my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it. But how happy I was that morning!”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago.“I played with my doll all morning long. She was such a beautiful dol…… And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down, ever so gently, on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
“I hardly had to turn round—I knew it was my precious doll. I just knew it. And it was. Her lace petticoat had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in from the dining room, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. I can still see my mother trying to put my poor dolly together again. But it couldn’t be done. She was gone forever.”
A few years later GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia. Now the tears in her eyes spilled over—tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
Subdued for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed,“Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas, one exactly like the doll that got broken. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my compassionate little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local dollmaker who made doll heads, hands and feet of a ceramic that closely resembled the old porcelain ones. From her I commissioned a doll head in the style of three-quarters of a century ago—making sure to specify“big blue eyes that opened and closed,”and hands and feet. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown wig and a kidskin body, and Meagan and I shopped for fabric, lace and ribbon to duplicate the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz, who had some experience with a hot-glue gun, volunteered to put the doll together, and as the last days before Christmas raced by, Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit, complete with lacy petticoat. And while Liz, Chris and I searched for doll“boots with real buttons,”Meagan wrote and illustrated the story of the lost doll.
Finally, our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But, of course, there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our gaily wrapped gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins.“It’s for you,”Meagan said,“but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
“Read it out loud.”one of the other children demanded. GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Cradling the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again,“She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.”
And perhaps she wasn’t just saying that to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close facsimile of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-yearold daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
祖父去世时，祖母83岁了，曾经活力四射的她，开始慢慢衰老了。她已无法料理家务，就搬去和我妈妈一起住。充满爱意的大家庭的其他成员（2个儿女、8个孙儿女、22个曾孙儿女和2个玄孙儿女）经常去看望她。她虽然过得不错，但若想勾起她对什么事情的兴趣则很难。
三年前，在12月一个寒冷的下午，我带着8岁的女儿米甘去看“GG”（这是家人对她的称呼），打算陪她一段时间。她一直盯着米甘怀里心爱的玩具娃娃。
“我小时候，也有一个特别的玩具娃娃，”她对米甘说。米甘吃惊地瞪大两只眼睛看着她，“那是我收到的一份圣诞礼物，当时我大概就像你这么大。那时候，我与爸爸、妈妈和四个姐妹住在缅因州的一幢老式农舍里。那个圣诞节，我收到的第一份礼物就是这样一个非常漂亮的玩具娃娃，你肯定也想看到。”
“她有一张手工绘成的瓷质脸庞，精致极了，一个大大的粉红蝴蝶结把她那长长的棕色头发束在脑后。那双眼睛很蓝，还不停地眨着。我记得她的身子是用小山羊皮做成的，胳膊和腿部的关节还能弯曲。”
GG压低了声音，用近乎虔诚的语调说：“我的娃娃穿着一件精美的粉红色礼服，裙子上还镶有漂亮的蕾丝花边。但给我印象最深的是衬裙，那是用薄亚麻布做的，还镶着一排排精致的花纹，靴子上的小纽扣是真的。能得到这么一个做工精细的娃娃，对我这样一个农家女孩来说简直就是一个奇迹——为了买她，父母一定做出了巨大的牺牲。那天早上，我高兴极了！”
GG回想着很久以前的那个圣诞节，眼里饱含深情，声音有些颤抖：“我和娃娃玩了整整一个上午，她是那么漂亮……后来，不幸的事情发生了。母亲叫我们去饭厅吃圣诞晚宴，我把玩具娃娃小心翼翼地放在客厅的桌子上。当我与家人一起坐在饭桌前时，突然听到砰的一声。”
“我几乎不用转身，就知道一定是我那宝贝娃娃。我知道就是她，事实上也的确如此。她那花边衬裙从桌上垂下来，我的小妹妹一伸手刚好就能够得着她，于是就把她拽下来了。我冲出饭厅，看到漂亮的娃娃躺在地上，脸已经碎成几十块。母亲努力想把可怜的娃娃拼起来，那情景我至今仍记忆犹新，但一切都已无法挽回，她永远离我而去了。”
GG告诉米甘，她的小妹妹在几年后因肺炎也离开了人世。此刻，她的泪水夺眶而出——我知道，这泪水不仅是为失去的玩具娃娃和小妹妹而流，更是为了逝去的岁月。
余下的时间里，米甘始终心事重重。我们要回家时，一上车米甘就大叫：“妈，我有个很棒的主意！我们送给GG一个娃娃做圣诞礼物吧，要和那个摔碎的娃娃一模一样。那样，她想起娃娃时就再也不会哭了。”
听到富于同情心的小女儿这么说，我感到很骄傲。但是我们上哪儿去找一个娃娃，与GG记忆中的那个一模一样呢？
正如人们所说的，有志者，事竟成。当我把这件事告诉最好的朋友利兹和克里斯后，利兹帮我与当地一个玩具娃娃制造商取得了联系。她用于做玩具娃娃的头、手和脚的陶土，与以前的那种非常相似。我拜托她把娃娃头做成75年前的那种风格——一定要有一双“会眨的蓝色大眼睛”，还要有手和脚。我在一家玩具娃娃供应店定做了一头长长的棕色假发和一个小山羊皮的身子。为了将GG那满怀深情的描述复制得栩栩如生，我和米甘还买来了布、花边和丝带等。利兹有使用热塑胶枪的经验，他自告奋勇地承担起黏合娃娃各部分的工作。圣诞节即将来临，克里斯帮我做好了有花边衬裙的礼服。在我和利兹、克里斯正忙着寻找“有真纽扣的靴子”时，米甘将失去娃娃的故事写了下来，并配上了精美的插图。
最后，我们终于大功告成了。在我们看来，这个娃娃是如此完美。当然，她不可能与GG失去的那个她所喜爱的娃娃完全一样。她会觉得她们有相似之处吗？
圣诞节前夜，我和米甘带着精心包装好的礼物去了GG的住处。她被孩子们、孩子的父母们、姨母姑母们、伯父叔父们和表兄弟表姐妹们团团包围着。“这是送给您的，”米甘说道，“但是，您得先读读与礼物有关的那则故事。”
“大声读吧。”有个孩子要求道。GG刚读完一页纸，就泣不成声。米甘接着把故事读完，到了该打开礼物的时候了。
GG把娃娃抱在胸前，她脸上的表情令我终生难忘。她再次热泪盈眶，但这次是幸福的泪水。她让娃娃躺在她虚弱的臂弯中，反复地说：“她非常像我原来的那个娃娃，像极了。”
也许，她这么说不只是为了善意地肯定我们。无论事情看起来有多么不可能，我们还是成功地复制了她记忆中的娃娃。但是，当我看到8岁的女儿和她的曾祖母一起注视着娃娃时，一个更有可能的解释闪现在我的脑海。或许正是GG那份爱心激励我们成功地制作了这份礼物。可能GG所意识到的，是我们在礼物制作中所倾注的爱！爱心不管源自何处，始终是相同的。
心灵小语
那个洋娃娃真的和祖母曾经拥有过的一样吗？不，也许相同只是那份赠予的用心、爱意，以及收获的欢愉。
favorite adj.最喜爱的
例 This is my favorite department.
这是我最喜爱的部门。
exquisite adj.精致的；细腻的；敏锐的
例 The girl came up with a set of exquisite stamps.
那姑娘拿出一套精美的邮票。
reverent adj.恭敬的；虔诚的
例 The act of making a reverent petition to God, a god, or another
object of worship.
祷告行为是对上帝、神或另一个崇拜对象做出虔诚祈求的行为。
pneumonia n.肺炎
例 In developed countries, most pneumonia cases are caused by viruses.
在发达国家，大多数肺炎是由病毒引起的。
此刻，她的泪水夺眶而出——我知道，这泪水不仅是为失去的玩具娃娃和小妹妹而流，更是为了逝去的岁月。
译___________________________________________________________________
听到富于同情心的小女儿这么说，我感到很骄傲。
译___________________________________________________________________
爱心不管源自何处，始终是相同的。
译___________________________________________________________________
My doll was dressed in a dainty pink gown.
dress in：穿着
造___________________________________________________________________
Liz put me in touch with a local dollmaker who made doll heads.
in touch with：保持联系；互通音讯；接触
造___________________________________________________________________