Chloe's Box

This is a story about a toy box. It belongs to Chloe, and it always will.

On Chloe’s first birthday, my husband (Grumps) made the box for her. We kept it at our house and filled it with toys. As she grew up and then her younger sister Aubrey came along, the two girls always loved to play with the toys in the box when they visited us.

A year after Aubrey was born, our grandson Finlay was born and two years later our second grandson Harry arrived. Trucks and trains were added to the My Little Ponies and Barbies. Oh, how they all enjoyed the box, spending hours exploring and trying out all the toys while the grandparents watched with joy.

On Christmas Day of 2017, tragedy struck. Suddenly Chloe and Aubrey were gone. Our broken hearts will never mend.

For a long time, the box was silent.

Finlay and Harry eventually played again with the toys left in the box, but could not really comprehend why many of the girls’ toys had been donated to a Children’s Hospital and the Sally Ann.

We added more toys for the boys. Grumps made wooden blocks for them to use to create Forts and Castles where their soldiers battled. Their imaginative creations were incredible, and I posted many of them on Facebook.

But still our hearts remained frozen in time.

The boys are now older. At ten and eight, they prefer to play board games with us or read their books when they come over, so recently we cleared out most of the old toys. We only left some Lego and of course the wooden blocks.

One Teddy Bear is sitting in the empty box now. The box itself is still in the cubby hole where it always was. It seems to be waiting.

But the box only appears to be empty.

Every time I pass by, I don’t see an empty box. I see all the memories that ease my pain.

But my heart still breaks at the unfairness of life. I guess it always will.

One day I hope the box will be passed on to a great grandchild who will hear the stories of two special little girls who played with Finlay and Harry alongside Chloe’s special box. It will be filled with new toys, new memories and so much joy. Chloe would like that.

Chloe’s Box is forever. Because it is magical.