Everytime we opened a drawer or door, there was another surprise. We five siblings were sorting and purging at my parents’ place and had made the rule ask before we threw it away. It wasn’t long until my brother, Doug, looked at a plastic bag filled with googly eyes and asked with a snear, “Who would want these?”

“ME _ ME _ ME!” I explaimed, surprised that there were no contenders. Doug shook his head questioningly, as he often did with me. There’s something magical about these wiggly eyes—they are fun for craft projects, costumes and adding a little levity to life.

Through research, I found an adhesive that was durable, easily removable. A few weeks later, I planned to carry googly-eyes with me and to stick them where I could enhance a space. Then there was the pandemic lockdown –we weren’t allowed to go anywhere, and sticking googly-eyes in my own home didn’t seem to have the same panache as public. On my birthday in late March, Doug, stopped by, he saw them on my table and gave me ‘that look’—I explained my plan and his eyes got all twinkly and he started chuckling…he wanted in on it.

FINALLY in September we were in a somewhat public place and Doug pointed out an incredible googly-eyes opportunity BUT I didn’t have them with me — he voiced his disappointment in me. I made sure I never left home without them. also put a supply in my purse.

Doug’s birthday was a month later and to show my commitment to our project, I covered his present with googly-eyes, and we secretlly laughed at our googly-eye plan

Five days after the birthday celebration, my brother unexpectedly passed away–I lost my partner in appreciation. I continued to carry the googly eyes with me, but there was no heart.

On April 1st, my cousin posted her googly eyes project and my passion reignited. Only a few days later, I waited an excruciatingly LOOoonnng time at a medical clinic; the kind of wait you knew the minute you started something, there would be the perfunctory double-knock. And then I remembered the abandoned googly-eyes.

Four months later, I was in the same room and the eyes were STILL there! Obviously, my googly eye work here is not completed.