HAPPINESS IS...

ABOVE - My first family brunette
BELOW - My new brunette twin

Happiness is finding the twin of my long lost first family favorite brunette Sasha. I have been searching for several years and today she arrived. I didn't really expect her to be THE ONE because her photos in the auction were not really that good. But I took a gamble and this time I won.

Many would-be contenders have come and gone. A couple, with strong personalities of their own, have remained. But none, until today, actually looked like my first brunette. Back in the early 70s I had a large family of Sasha dolls -- well over a hundred. When we moved to California I picked twelve dolls to go with us and the others were adopted out. Sadly, those twelve, including my favorite brunette, were lost or stolen.

In recent years I was able to find twins (or close cousins) of my other first family dolls. But, never even a distant cousin of the brunette Sasha. I became like one of those obsessed knights looking for the Holy Grail. I missed one a year ago on Shelly's site that was as close as I have ever seen. But still just close -- not a twin.

For days I have been pacing the floor, chewing my nails, and driving the Postman insane looking for the package to arrive. Every day I tracked the package online and finally, on Friday, it arrived in Philadelphia. I thought it might get here on Saturday but it didn't. Today, as I was making my afternoon coffee and snack, the Postman knocked on my door and announced that the box had arrived. I frantically tore it open, nearly broke my fingers trying to pry off the lid of the tube and then finally she emerged -- disheveled and disoriented. As I brushed her hair and got a good look at her face I realized she was, in fact, a twin to my lost girl.
And I just sat there looking at her with tears streaming down my cheeks.

Yes, Sasha, grown men do cry -- if they are really, really happy.