Widow’s grief turns bend with teddy bear books
Two years after the death of her husband, a Tu¯ a¯ kau woman has discovered creativity and community with her photos of an Aotearoa touring teddy bear.
When Lyn Pater’s husband Bert, 72, died of cancer in 2018, she lost part of herself.
‘‘I just lost all creativity, especially with my photography.’’
A year after his death, Bert’s sister, Trish, says she began to worry about her sister-in-law’s mental health.
‘‘She had so much to deal with . . . she was all alone,’’ Trish said.
‘‘We wanted to give her something worthwhile, everyone needs something to make them smile . . . we just didn’t know what at that stage.
Their answer would come in November last year, as the duo drove through Paeroa on the way to visit family.
‘‘Trish felt like being a bit silly,’’ Lyn said.
‘‘So she picked up this bear that I have just sitting in the front of the campervan
. . . and started waving it at all these people we went past.
‘‘Everybody was laughing, it was such a great reaction.’’
As luck would have it Trish and her husband Mike own a small publishing company, Mike Legg Books.
After some coaxing, the husband and wife were able to convince Lyn to put her photographic talents to use to create a children’s book, using their new-found mascot, Berty the bear, who was named after Lyn’s late husband.
‘‘I thought ‘why not it might’ be fun,’’ says Lyn.
Though she received some strange looks at Karioitahi Beach while taking photographs of a bear dressed in swimming togs.
‘‘It was so funny, I wondered what people must have been thinking.’’
The first book, Friends, went on sale in March. Lyn says she had no idea the reaction it would receive.
‘‘The day we put it up on Facebook in ten minutes we got our first order all the way from Denmark . . . it absolutely blew us away.
‘‘Six at night, my phone was still going bing, bing, bing . . . I had to turn it off, so I could get to bed.
Eight months, two books, and thousands of orders later, she says Berty the bear has toured the breadth of Franklin, hiked through the dense forest of the Manawatu and played in the snow of Mt Ruapehu.
‘‘Everywhere I go I’m always thinking where could I take this bear.’’
And experience has given her a new lease on life.
‘‘Picking up that camera brought that side of my brain into focus, that way of expressing yourself.’’
Documenting the travelling teddy not only revived her creativity, organising his adventures has become a community effort.
‘‘My neighbour knitted a little cardigan, it was really nice, so we included it in the story by creating grandmother bear.
‘‘I think it’s keeping the whole village occupied now.’’
She says there are three more books on the way.
‘‘These days I smile and sing to myself. It’s just made me whole again.’’
‘‘The day we put it up on Facebook in ten minutes we got our first order all the way from Denmark . . . it absolutely blew us away’’