Funeral of a Loyal Friend

To those of you that don't know, this is a HUGE deal! I have had a pillow that I have been sleeping with every night since I was about 14. Even today I CANNOT sleep without it. We have had it in my family, though, since before I was born. The date on the pillow says copyright 1980. I have finally been forced to retire it. Forgive some of these pictures because we don't have a scanner and these are just pictures of pictures. But, this first one is a great example of my relationship with Mr. Crayon; a picture of when I was on my mission:

Mr. Crayon has seen some amazing things. I took him with me on almost all of my train rides for transfers and exchanges on my mission. He traveled with me to over 20 different cities in France. I took him with me everywhere that I knew I would be sleeping, including all of my interviews at different medical schools, and all of my trips away from home. Here he is with me in front of a Rolls Royce in Versailles, France.Here we are together on a bench in Château-Thierry, a small town east of Paris.Here are a couple pictures of us in front of the Château de Versailles.That's Louis XIV behind us.Mr. Crayon has even been loyal to Lillie as we used to put her to sleep for her naps on our bed before she could role over and put him next to her.But, Anna looked online for hours and hours since she met me to find a pattern to replace the pillow (since it has been falling apart for quite some time) and she finally found some a while back. She sewed me a new pillow today and I was forced to have to gut my loyal Mr. Crayon and replace him with a new crayon pillow.

This actually happened to the tip of the pillow before we even did anything to it. It's been getting worse and its insides finally started falling out, so it has reached the end of its life.As you can see, the new pillow is not faded, and its guts aren't bulging out the top like poor Mr. Crayon. Thanks Anna for making me a new crayon (aka 'Oscar'). And thank you to Mr. Crayon for your years and years of loyal service. I couldn't sleep without you!