My granddaughter was blessed with the hand me down doll collection after one of her Dad's coworker's daughter decided she had outgrown them. One doll came with a snowboard, wheel chair, cast for her leg and crutches, but the wheelchair had no seat anymore.
I am working in a class with severely handicapped students, three in wheelchairs, so when I asked my assistant, an older lady who supplements her activities with sewing projects, if she could make a cushion for the seat, she agreed, but knew what real wheelchairs look like and went above and beyond. She made a leatherish chair, and a purple furry cushion, and then in an odd serendipity, she found a scrap of silk brocade she had used to sew me a bag from silk I had bought in China in 1987 to give my sister in law, the sister in law died hiking the Grand Canyon in 2007 and I got the silk back, and that year I was also working with this woman. She had made it into a music bag for my husband, sewing it in another house 3 hours drive away, but when making this toy for my granddaughter, the scrap turned up in this house to become a pillow from great aunt April who never got to meet Daisy, but shared her birth month.
It's really quite interesting how those kinds of stories come about- and how they tie generations together. I also find it rather funny that the doll comes with a wheel chair, crutches and cast! I guess American Girl is trying to send a message to potential snow boarders- be careful!
