The Story of Three Bears

This yarn goes a long way back 75 years, in fact, to when Marjorie Jack was just 4 years old. Her father’s shift-work meant that her mother was either having to prepare supper for him long after other little girls Marjorie’s age were already tucked into bed, or Mrs Turner was up in the small hours of the morning sending her husband off with a good breakfast under his belt well before the sun made an appearance.

Little Marjorie had a strong sense of wanting to be part of her mum’s domestic schedule and, so, would perch on a chair in the kitchen while Mrs Turner multitasked, giving her daughter basic knitting lessons while tending to saucepans on the stove. Seven decades on, Marjorie fondly remembers how she managed to wield her knitting needles to put together a small jacket for her newborn brother. “And I haven’t stopped knitting since!”

She and a bevy of other ladies at Garden View Tuinsig, Berea, have been hard at work, surrounded by skeins of wool of many hues donated anonymously, either crocheting babies’ blankets or knitting a sleuth of teddy bears. “I must say that I didn’t know that was the collective term for a bunch of bears, but now that we have made 33 of them, I think it’s just great!” Tuinsig’s knitting brigade donated their results of their handicraft to The Domino Foundation’s Babies’ Home, as well to collaborative partners Baby Line, who provide counselling and support services which provides counselling and support services for mothers in crisis, and to Early Childhood Development centres partnering with Domino.

Majorie had the final word when she said that she and her fellow knitters had added a heart to each teddy: “When I think of the little people who are going to cuddle these soft toys, I want them to know that our gift comes with love.”