Molly and the prosthesis…

Because I really don’t want to get up and start my day, and because I have been going through scanned photos and have been thinking about my mother-in-law a lot (she died in 2010 and we now live in her house), and because I have been watching our old home videos (remember, my husband is a TV guy and my children were constantly being recruited by him for little movies, written, shot and produced by hus), I thought I would share a particularly poignant and funny memory of Molly and my mum-in-law’s prosthesis…

A long, long time ago, we rescued a black and white springer spaniel named Molly. She was 4 months old when she came to us, and we figured that she would eventually outgrow her puppy, mouthy ways…um, no, she was a springer spaniel…springers tend to remain puppyish until they are 10, then they are old…no inbetween. In those days, my in-laws lived half a year in Maine and half in Arizona. So, twice a year, they would come stay with us overnight as they passed through our area.

Now I need to go back a little…my mum-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy when she was, if I remember correctly, in her late 60s. As a result, she had a breast prosthesis that she wore in her bra when she was out in public…and visits to us were deemed to be public.

OK, back to one of their twice-yearly visits…we had a wonderful weekend together and waved the in-laws off on their journey back home to Maine. After they left, we were returning the house to its normal state when we caught Molly happily pulling the filling out of what looked like a fluff-stuffed bean bag. We were absolutely baffled as to what the thing was, gathered up all the pieces and put them aside for later consideration. That evening, when my mum-in-law called to tell us they had gotten home safely, she asked me if I had found the breast prosthesis that she had inadvertently left it behind. I told her I would look for it, hung up, and BAM! The lightbulb went off…Molly had found the missing prosthesis and that was what she had de-fluffed.  The hus and I frantically stuffed all the fluff back in, I painstakingly stitched it back together and we sent it off to my mum-in-law with fulsome apologies and offers of replacement…included in the package was a hus-drawn cartoon of a penitent Molly holding an eviscerated prosthesis in her mouth. This became a family joke, and just the mention of Molly’s name in mum-in-law’s presence elicited fits of giggling.

I loved my mum-in-law’s ability to laugh…I think of her so often and cherish all the memories that make us all smile.