Melody McBride of Manteo is a self-professed “daddy’s girl.” And when her father died in 2013, Melody had a hard time processing it all. A friend suggested that she have a pillow or something made out of one of her father’s shirts. After doing some research online, Melody discovered someone had made a teddy bear out of some old clothing. The light bulb went off as Melody said to herself “I could make that!”

And made one she did. Not only for herself but one for her brother as well. Sitting down over a beer as we chatted, Melody says, “When I look at the bear, it doesn’t look like my dad – but it does feel like the essence of my dad.”

Melody’s bear that she made in remembrance of her father sits on a shelf in her office. “I can hug it. I can talk to it, and everything is ok. It’s a place for the grief to go, I guess.” Melody says as her voice trailed off.

“I showed it to someone once who asked if I could make them one too. I did, and word of mouth just kind of spread from there.”

You can find some of the bears that Melody has made on her Facebook page, Huggable Memories Memory Bears. Each bear, depending on the amount of detail will take anywhere from 16 to 24 hours to complete. And to this point Melody guesses that she has made “about 100.”

Full disclosure here, my wife Char had heard about Melody when her father passed from COVID in November 2020. Char commissioned Melody to do a bear from her father’s clothing, and another from her mother’s vintage, velvet, sequined wrap.

“Oh, Char was very specific in what she wanted,” laughs Melody. “And I had the sparkly material from her mother’s bear in my house for weeks!”

Memory Bear creation options are almost endless

Melody can pretty much make whatever you would like in your bear. The more specific, the less interpretation has to be made by the artist. But a lot of people do meet with Melody and, “With a sniffle, hand me a bag of their loved one’s clothes and just ask me to make them something.” Which is fine too, according to Melody. “I just love handing them back the completed bear. Their expression and feeling are so much different. That makes me feel good!”

But the bears are not just for deceased loved ones. They can be for all sorts of events. “I’ve done some to commemorate a baby’s first year. People will bring me some of the baby’s onesies and I’ll make it from that.” It’s kind of like this generation’s version of bronzed baby shoes.

Though she’s never done one yet, Melody, would love to commemorate a wedding anniversary by making a Huggable Memories Memory Bear using part of a wedding dress.

That got me thinking. Can all types of materials be used to make a bear? “Pretty much,” Melody answers. “I can’t use leather, fur, or anything shiny or slick. But otherwise, yes. The best materials seem to be jeans and broadcloth materials like flannel shirts.”

Certainly, some projects were harder than others, I thought. It turns out I was right. “I once had a nice lady bring me a bag full of her husband’s neckties. Apparently, he had a lot of them. I was able to turn that bag into 5 different bears for her. Each taking about 12 ties or so.”

Another cool project that Melody has done was when she visited a lady in a rest home. “She wanted to leave each of her 3 grandkids a different bear to remember her by. Over the years, each grandchild had given her a shirt, a dress, or a skirt. She told me which item of clothing came from which grandchild, and I made that particular bear out of that clothing for that grandchild.”

“I am so lucky,” Melody says. “I get the best feeling from my work. One time a lady had sent me a picture of her husband sitting in his favorite recliner in the clothes that she gave me to make his bear. The next picture was of the bear in those same clothes in that same recliner.” Friends, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Back in high school in the Greensboro area, Melody McBride had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She says she still doesn’t. But for now, making special bears for special occasions for special people, well, that just makes her happy. And who doesn’t want to be happy?

If you would like a bear to be commissioned, visit Melody’s Facebook group, Huggable Memories Memory Bears, HERE>