A 'Touched by an Angel' story

By: Yvette Jessen

© 2001 not intended to infringe on any previously held copyrights. This is an amateur story.

Teddy bears, teddy bears, teddy bears! I could see them as far as the eye could see as we walked through the large convention hall in Hennef, Germany. This convention hall was enormous; three stories with bear making supplies, hand made teddy bears and other souvenirs as well as things with photos of bears on them. It was completely full; there were teddy bear fans all gathered in one place. As we passed people, you could hear them speaking foreign languages, one group spoke English, other groups spoke Japanese, then French, Italian and so on. There were teddy bear fans from all over the world in this place, all with the intent to share their love of teddy bears and anything 'bear' oriented. It was such a wonderful day, and it was clear to anyone who knew me, that I was absolutely in my element.

I suppose you're wondering who I am? My name is Yvette, and I'm what most people would call an arctophile. No it's nothing bad, it simply means that is I collect teddy bears as well as anything teddy bear related, and only recently I started making my own teddy bears from patterns out of magazines. This little habit started because I had won a kit in a drawing some time ago and teddy bear making has became a passion. As my husband always said, if I wasn't writing stories about a certain Angel of Death named Andrew, then I was taking care of a large and very cuddly family of bears.

It is in essence what brought my husband, Kalle, and myself to this wonderful teddy bear celebration. Kalle is the first teddy that we made together, and we brought him, along with a tag saying that if he gets lost that whoever finds him should send him home. Little did we know that this tag would eventually help us be reunited with our baby after something rather strange and extraordinary happened to him while we were in Hennef.

As with Tess and the love she has for her car, this is the love we have for our teddy, and I had told Sven prior to going that I was rather nervous about bringing any of my children to the fair because with all those people and all those bears, Kalle might wander off and we would never be able to find him again. As all teddy bear Mommas know, it is imperative to keep one's eyes on the little ones, because contrary to popular opinion, they do tend to wander off. Specifically if they happen to see signs for Honey with bread, or chocolate cake, both treats teddy bears absolutely love.

So there we were walking through this large open room, teddy bears every where, big ones, small ones, bears dressed in costumes, bears as the theme for artwork, bears being used as the heroes in stories and legends as well as anything else that happened to come up. Let's face it; this was heaven for a self-professed arctophile.

In my haste, I failed to notice that Kalle had wandered off. I suppose it was rather irresponsible of me to not notice this, but it was not clear to me that my baby was gone until I reached in the backpack for him with the intent on showing him to someone I had met, and to my horror, he was not there.

"Sven, do you have Kalle?" I asked.

"No," he looked rather concerned when he noticed that I too did not have Kalle in my possession.

"Oh no, what will we do, our baby is lost?" I was in tears, as I was overcome with worry. I had heard that people were actually stealing bears at this fair, and if our baby had been bear-napped, I would never have forgiven myself for having brought him with us. I was beside myself with worry. "Sven, what will we do?"

"Someone is bound to find him, but we'll backtrack and see if we left him somewhere. Don't worry, Honey, Kalle will be OK," he tried to console me, but at that moment, I was rather inconsolable. I was scared, because I didn't know where my beloved teddy could possibly be.



Meanwhile on the other side of the fair, Andrew, Tess, and Monica had entered the convention hall. Monica's eyes were wide as she looked around the large hall and could see the teddy bears all around them. "Oh Tess isn't this amazing, so many teddy bears, and each one different from the other. This is absolutely wonderful!"

"Yes, there are definitely some talented people around here," Tess said.

"I'm in need of some lunch," Andrew said. "Would you two excuse me while I go and get something to eat? You had something before we came, but I wasn't really in the mood for cheeseburgers. Can I meet you two later?"

"Sure baby," Tess said. "We'll meet here a bit later, maybe in an hour or so. I want to see the drawing for the competitions."

"OK," Andrew wandered off leaving Tess and Monica alone. As he glanced back to wave at them, he could see that the crowd of people had succeeded in separating him from the other two angels. Sighing deeply, he made his way through the crowd, and began to take in his surroundings. This was really incredible, he thought to himself as he looked at the different displays. What a fantastic gift these people have, to be able to create such wonderful teddy bears.

As he wandered around, he approached a table and could see a teddy bear sitting there off to one side. "Hello," he spoke to the woman at the table.

"Hi, are you here to retrieve your teddy bear? I think he's lost," she said noticing that he had began to stroke the furry head of the teddy bear that was seated on the table.

"No, this teddy bear doesn't belong to me," he said and bent down to read the nametag. "It says here that his name Kalle, and his mommy and daddy are Sven and Yvette?" he said and rubbed his fingers through Kalle's fur.

"Did you say something?" the woman asked noticing that he was still stroking the teddy bear and she had been so busy that she did not notice that he had read the tag pinned to Kalle's neck scarf.

"Nothing," Andrew said and smiled as he picked Kalle up in his arms and cradled the soft teddy bear. "Listen, if you don't know where the owners of this teddy bear are, maybe I can help you and try to find them myself."

"That would be really nice of you," she said. "I can't leave my stand, I'm alone here, and there are thieves around here. I really have so much stuff going on, that I'm afraid that I won't have time to go and search for the owners, but if you could, that would be wonderful."

"Consider it done," he said and walked away with Kalle in his arms. "I'm taking you to your mommy and daddy, Kalle," he whispered, "Don't worry."

People watched as the tall, handsome, man walked through the hall with the soft beige teddy bear in his arms, and some even laughed. He didn't mind, he could see that the names of the teddy bear's parents were Yvette and Sven and he was determined to find them.



"It's hopeless, Sven, we'll never find him," I said as we sat down at a table in the snack area. "We checked all the booths we had visited and we still didn't find him."

"Look, we'll ask at the information desk and maybe someone found him and is trying to find us," Sven said encouragingly. "Don't give up, we'll find him."

As I looked around the area, I could see the people all sitting around the area. They were all enjoying the fair, but I just couldn't because I was worried about my little Kalle. Where could he be, I kept asking myself.

"Excuse me," a voice startled me. "Are you Yvette and Sven Jessen by any chance?"

"Yes," I said but kept my head down.

"Are you sad because you're missing your teddy bear?" the voice asked causing me to turn around and my eyes met a pair of sympathetic green eyes.

"Oh my…" my voice failed me, as I often thought it would. "You're…"

"Andrew," he smiled and my relief was evident when I saw him holding Kalle gently in his arms.

I looked across the table at Sven with a look on my face like the cat that ate the canary. Recovering from my shock, I finally found my voice and spoke. "An Angel of Death, here in Hennef, and you found Kalle?"

"You know who I am?" he asked somewhat bewildered.

"Yes, I do, and I think you're fantastic!" I said practically bubbling over. "Please sit down," I offered and moved my jacket from off the third chair as Andrew sat down next to me. All the while he held Kalle in his hands.

"How did you find Kalle, Andrew?" Sven asked. "Yvette was beside herself with worry about him."

"He was sitting at a booth near the front entrance, and I just happened to find him. I liked him a lot, and the woman there asked me if I had left him. I told her I didn't but that I would be happy to try and find Kalle's parents," Andrew smiled gently at me. "She told me that I could take him with me and try to find you, so for the last hour or so, that's what I've been doing. Then I saw you, and you looked so sad, that I concluded that you must be the worried parents."

"That was really nice of you," I said. "I guess you noticed that I'm rather attached to my teddy bears."

"Why is this little fellow so special?" Andrew asked.

"He's handmade," I said. "Sven and I made him together, and we wanted to show him to the people who got us into teddy bear making last year. That's why we brought him with us."

Andrew continued to hold Kalle in his lap. "I knew there must be something special about him."

"Andrew, can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"Sure, you can ask me anything," he said.

"What on earth are you doing at a teddy bear fair?" I asked.

"I have a day off," he said smiling. "Even angels need some time off to have some fun. And I really am enjoying this fair."

"Do you like what you've seen here?" I asked.

"Yes I do, all the people that make these bears have such a wonderful gift," he said. "Look at Kalle, there is no other bear who will look exactly like him. It's the same with people, each one has their own personality and that makes them special in the eyes of the Lord."

"I never thought I'd get the chance to meet you, much less here in Hennef," I said. "I just got into making bears recently, and it's a lot of fun for me. We have a lot of store bought teddy bears at home, but making bears is really something unique and special to me. When I meet someone who loves them too, then I feel that I am doing good work with making them."

"You are, Yvette," he said softly as he handed Kalle to me. "This ability is your gift from God, and I'd bet that you have more special gifts than just making teddy bears."

Sven nodded, "she sings almost constantly."

I blushed but nodded. "I know that's a gift. Just meeting you is like a gift too. Thank you for trying to find us and for bringing Kalle back to us. I know that he probably has a wonderful story to tell and one day, I may just have to write it."

Andrew smiled and stood up as he looked at his watch. "I'm glad that Kalle made it home to you, and do hold onto him, he's a very special teddy. I'd better get going, though, I have to meet Tess and Monica for the drawings."

"Bye, Andrew, see you…. someday," I called out as he disappeared through the crowd. "Now do you believe that Andrew's the 'grim reaper', Sven?" I asked looking rather pointedly at my husband.

My husband looked innocently at me, but after awhile he smiled. "I am rather reluctant about admitting that he doesn't resemble one, specifically because I've had such fun teasing you about it, but I'm glad he found Kalle too. With an angel, our teddy bear was definitely in good hands."

"Even if it was an Angel of Death?" I asked.

"Sure, after all, he did have the day off;" Sven smirked and took a sip of his beer.

I laughed and gave Kalle a 'welcome home' cuddle.

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