When I was four years old, there was a time when my little brother was staying in a hospital for a brief time due to pneumonia. My father and I were alone at home, and would make a regular visit to the hospital to see my brother and mother.
One day, my father had found out that there was a rummage sale at a nearby YMCA. Being a fan of small shopping, my father was excited by this news.
“There is a rummage sale at the YMCA. We can have a quick look before visiting the hospital today!”
“What’s a rummage sale, Daddy?”
I had never heard of such a thing before, and I didn’t understand why my father was so excited.
“Well, it’s a place where you can find many interesting items for cheap price!”
That’s what he told me. I had no idea what kind of items we would find there, but looking at my father’s excitement, I thought it must be something very special.
I hopped onto the back of my father’s bicycle, and together we headed to the rummage sale.
When we arrived at the YMCA, there was a crowd of people in the garden. There were many pop-up stalls, some selling food, others selling clothes and books. My father went to check out books and food, while I looked around the clothing section.
As I was having a look at a box of different clothes, a red heart plush jumped at my eyes. It could have been mislocated since the heart plush was the only non-clothing item in the box. But in any case, it grabbed my heart right away.
I was touching and caressing the heart plush when my father came to me with a few items in his cart.
“Do you want it?”
My father asked me. I don’t recall what I answered. We were in a hurry, and I didn’t have time to think. Before I knew it, my father threw the heart plush into his cart and went to the payment.
As we cycled to the hospital, I was holding the heart plush happily in my arms.
Later, I looked back on the day, and thought how interesting that the heart plush appealed to me that day. It was always on my mind that my little brother had a heart disease, and perhaps that was the reason why I was drawn to the heart plush at the rummage sale.