Siobhan (Joan)

Our cat Bangles is inspecting one of our latest additions to the museum, the little girl in the pink frothy dress is named Siobhan, or Joan, in Gaelic.  I didn't name her.  She came with a story.  She is a modern porcelain doll, c. 1990, with a more expressive face than many of these dolls.  Her left hand suffers a broken finger tip, but Siobhan has her own story.

I bought her from The Celtic Shoppe in Willow Glen, San Jose, CA.  She be longed to a friend of the owner, who died young from Cancer.  The owner is a lovely lady, Irish, petite, in her seventies, yet seemingly ageless.  We talked quite a bit, and she told me she was thinking of keeping Siobhan, and I told her she could.  Yet, she said her friend wanted her beloved doll to go to a good home, and to travel where she could no longer.

So, she came home with me across the country.  She sits next to me when I write, and the sailor boy directly behind her is a gift from my friend Trisha, another talented writer.  I'm sending a St. Patrick's Day card to The Celtic Shoppe, just to let the owner know that her doll made it home safely, and that she will be part of our museum.  Dolls are so much more than the some of their marks.