Inspiring Women SUMMER 2020

she had said from the sidewalk. My internet radio plays
NPR from a corner of my kitchen. A Dallas reporter
recorded his walk with his children.
My children and I peruse the city streets - avoiding the few
bicycles, empty buses and trams. We explore new cobbles
and memorize unfamiliar street names. We gaze into
gorgeous windows lined with enchanting Art Nouveau
details and count 109 Teddy Bears – my middle child
recording each sighting with a tickmark on his pad of
paper.
Care Bears stand proudly in windows, their bellies forward in a Care Bear stare. “Mama, which
one is that one?” and I scroll through decades of memories to resurface “Tenderheart Bear!
Cheer Bear! Friend Bear!”
There are hand-drawn bears, well-loved bears, tiny bears, huge bears, and a chicken. A woman
gazes from her window and points to her hidden bear in the corner – tucked behind a frosted
glass windowpane. She smiles and we smile back. A human connection between windows. And
Teddy Bears.
We return home by snack time. As they munch on crackers, cheese and apples, I head upstairs to
my sons’ bookshelf and run my fingers across the titles I unpacked a week ago.
“Come on, I want to read y’all a story,” I tell them.
With them all nestled on the couch, I begin. “The First Teddy Bear, by Helen Kay.” I read them the
book my mother had read to me as a child. I flip the
pages and my children learn about the American
President, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, and a humble
candy store owner in Brooklyn who made toys at night.
At a time when the USA was mocking the President for
not shooting a small, cinnamon-colored bear during
the Great Bear Hunt of 1902, Morris Michtom, the candy
store man, celebrated the President’s compassion. He
and his wife stitched a toy bear and asked the
President if he’d mind it being named after him. “I
cannot imagine what good my name will do,”
President Roosevelt wrote, but he didn’t mind. I tell my
children that when I was twelve, I went to the National
Museum of American History (part of the Smithsonian Institute) to see the very first Teddy Bear.
2020, the year of Coronavirus. We are isolated, scared and vulnerable. People are sick and dying.
The future is unknown. On the subplot, children (and adults alike) are also missing their friends,
wanting the comfort of their routine and craving human connection. Unfortunately, there’s no
way around this. “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!”
Like the President’s Great Bear Hunt of 1902, we venture into the unknown expecting one thing,
but we are finding compassion and comfort instead. Inside that narrow, gloomy cave is a bear. A
Teddy Bear. And amid it all, I’ve found a new place in my heart for Bear Hunts.
Celeste Bennekers grew up in Plano, Texas and currently lives in Belgium where she is the
President of the American Women's Club of Antwerp. In a former life, she worked in public
accounting and was an auditor for American Airlines, where she traveled constantly visiting major
(and minor) airports all over the world. She now shares the love of travel with her husband and
three children, ages ten, eight, and five, who attend local Belgian schools. Although she's far from
home, she can be seen around Antwerp wearing cowboy boots on rainy days, celebrating Cinco
de Mayo, and loves frying chicken and baking biscuits for her family and friends in her greataunt's
cast-iron skillet.
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