"Robin Patrick
The 'Babstalk' Angel"
by April Millican
The doll was donated by Ashton Drake.

A Great Woman in History
Robin Patrick, the Babstalk Angel

April Millican, also known as the Auntie in Auntie-Dot-Com does not customize dolls on a regular basis.
  This is one of a kind, probably one of a lifetime for her.


Robin Patrick was not unlike most fashion
doll collectors online.  She belonged to
email lists, haunted the aisles of ToysRus,
and read every Barbie Bazaar and Miller'$
she could lay hands on.  She had two young
children, a husband, and a budget.
  She was passionate about collecting,
passionate about the way she thought
the world, and life online should be.
Robin had it all.
  But she had something else, too.
  Breast Cancer.
On July 16, 1997, Robin, wife,
sweetheart, mom, sister, daughter,
and friend --
became something she never
aspired to be --
the Babstalk Angel.
 
Most of us never knew her in real life,
we only knew who she was to us.
I never met her, but I always thought
of her as a Regency Romance heroine.
  Feisty and funny and shy and bold,
all at the same time. 


The dress is of blue tafetta satin, hand-beaded in a flower pattern across the hem.  The high waist and cap sleeves reflect the Regency period.  The skirt and bodice are lined in cotton organza.  The original pattern was drawn with a pair of scissors, making this a one of a kind.  The wings, barely hinted in white feathers, for Robin wouldn't have felt like she should flaunt her wings, don't you know?

She is barefoot, because Angels, you know, walk on clouds, and they like to feel them between their toes.  Robin was a barefoot sort of girl in real life, too.

She changed the way Barbie lists convened, and she changed the way we thought about breast cancer.  She was so young, and so hopeful, but this equal opportunity disease doesn't look at age or attitude.  I'm not the world's best seamstress, but I hope you will bid on this doll with your heart, Robin would think it was such a hoot to "go high!"

 


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