When Mark was four or five all he wanted was the Millennium Falcon.
It was the one toy of childhood he truly longed for and did not receive. Oh how he wanted it! He LOVED Star Wars.
And I looked at it all those years ago and thought it was a lot of money at the time for a big hunk of plastic (at least that is how I remember it) So I didn’t buy it for him. Obviously, this topic has resurfaced over the years.
This past January I happened to sit next to a nice man and his wife at a friend’s 60th Surprise Birthday Party. We were chatting and he said he owned a Vintage Toy store- Where the Toys Are in Canonsburg PA.
“By any chance do you have a Millennium Falcon?”, I asked.
“Why, yes!”, he said he thought he did AND sure enough he emailed me and sent me photos. His friend (the 60th birthday guy was his childhood friend) delivered it right to my home (in the original box!) in February and I was so excited.
I kept it until Mark’s birthday but it was really hard to keep the surprise. I asked Matthew if he thought Mark would be happy to get it after all this time and he said he thought so and sure enough, look at Mark’s face in this photo.
A couple of weeks ago the Where the Toys Are man and his wife and the 60th Birthday man and his wife were in Zagreb and they called me on their cell phone from a 300 year old bar and I got to hear Matthew playing guitar and singing, 4550 miles away from Pittsburgh! Happy Happy Happy all around. 
You are a great mom! One of my favorite gifts was a baseball mitt I got for our 16th anniversary. I always wanted one and never got one as a child.
That’s the greatest!
We’ll now that you have me crying…..what a wonderful smile! A happy “boy” after all those years! Great photo and story.
Wow, what a great idea. I’m forwarding this post to my Mom, hopefully I’ll get that Barbie Dream House…
Priceless Ruth. Deaidra once wanted the Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas and I bought the next best pink look-alike thing. (I was a single parent and the real deal cost almost as much as my car payment.) She liked it, played with it and a year later when my mother bought her the real Dreamhouse… well my look-alike became where the “neighbors lived”. 🙂 I don’t remember what happened to the look-alike house but that Dreamhouse is still up on the third floor today.
More than anything in this picture, I loved seeing Mark! Oh, how much he looks like his dad!
There’s an expression: “it’s never too late to have a happy childhood!”
What a story!!
What a handsome son!!!!
XOXO Erica
I love this story! I wonder what my kids always wanted but didn’t get and I can’t remember?
How nice of you to send this along to me, Ruth!
I was happy to play a part in this story, and I look forward to meeting Mark some day.
Our visit to Zagreb was very special…and Mark’s brother Matt was a big reason for that!
He really is a wonderful young man, and I now consider him a friend.
Regards,
Phil
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I hope he liked the starwars poster I gave him for Christmas half as much as he liked this!
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