In the Spotlight - Lilly

In the Spotlight - Lilly

Lilly is my white skinned Narae from Narindoll. While contemplating a smaller-scale ball and joint doll, I happened upon a picture of an unpainted white Narae. I was so struck by her that I revisited the picture often in the following days. I had already met a Narae in person -- I had even taken pictures of her with my dolls because I liked her so much. Once I saw her in white though, I immediately saw her as a ghost and a story grew in my mind. I showed the picture to Mat (my fiancé and fellow collector) and, without having heard my ideas, he said,”Wow, she could be a ghost.” It was settled. We ordered her. Not long after my order was placed, Bimong (the creator of Narindolls) redesigned both Narin and Narae. Though that made my wait a bit longer, he kept me informed, sent me pictures, and promised me one of the “new” dolls. When she arrived, I was not disappointed. The eyes, wig, and few items of clothing I had collected for her all worked well. I painted her immediately. Lilly was home.

Lilly is a ghost. She is very quiet and is often seen only by Mat and I in our pictures. Our house is very old, and we assumed Lilly was a part of its history. We sought clues in newspaper archives, and we found one story which involved the area we live in. Our very small block is narrow and hidden and can only be found by walking down a series of other small, hidden blocks.

In Philadelphia 1903 a young girl disappeared. She was born to a wealthy family, her father was a banker. Her name was Lillian.

According to reports, she was out playing with friends. That day they wandered far from home and into one of the more dangerous parts of town. The children of ‘higher society’ were often told stories about an alley in the slums that had no beginning and no end – one that you could never find your way out of if you happened to find yourself in it. The stories were meant to keep the children close to home, but the friends later told their parents that they were looking for that alley that day. They even thought they had found it...

As the sun set, they found themselves in a new place at the center of a confusing tangle of very small streets. They found one street whose end they could not make out in the dark, and dared each other to run through it. They ran together, down that street and through several more after it. They kept running until they were once again in a familiar place. It was very late and when they began to make their way home Lilly realized that she had dropped something. Earlier that day, her grandmother had visited and given her a toy bunny. Lilly knew it was an expensive gift and had promised to keep it safe. She asked the others to walk back to the alley with her but they didn’t want to. They admitted to being far too scared.

Lilly never returned home. The streets where the children played were searched, but none of them were able to ever find that alley again, even at the insistence of the police. No trace was ever found of her and her family left the city soon after.

In early 2005, we had our home renovated and our tiny patch of back yard was dug up. The workers found a few interesting things as they exposed the foundation of our house; coins, glass bottles, a silver spoon…

And the tattered remains of a tiny stuffed bunny.