How I met The Panda Woman
“When I was a child, approximately ten years old, I went to a fancy little fair in Brussels near Gare du Midi. I found my first panda teddy bear there, I spent money to buy it to sleep with it in my bed,” the brunet lady told me her story while standing at the door of her very nice house. Her name is Laurence and certainly not only for me she is The Panda Woman.
Laurence (50) works in a nursery as a secretary and has two children, two girls. As she told me, both love the giant pandas as well. One of the most wonderful moments in her life was the trip to China. “When I was forty years old I went to China in Chengdu with WWF to better understand how the giant pandas grow up and give the birth, which is so difficult in an artificial environment, as it was proved by research. And imagine I had a chance to carry in my own arms one little panda baby. It was amazing,” the youthful looking woman remembers her dream trip to China.
Little treasures
Why I called her The Panda Woman? Because since that moment at the little flea market in Brussels she has been deeply in love with the giant pandas and became a big fan of these black-and-white extremely protected bears. Since that moment she has been collecting all the stuff with the motif of the panda bear.
Every time I was passing in Etterbeek the house with blue windows and the statues of panda bears behind them I was curious who lives there. And why he or she exposes these statues, I was asking myself.
Once I have finally gained enough courage and dared to ring the bell and with full of anticipation I was waiting who opened the door. I was lucky! Laurence, one tiny dark-haired woman, opened the door asking me how can she help me.
So I told her why I am standing in front of her house. “You know you´re not the only one who takes pictures of my windows. Besides those displayed statues, I have dozens of other little pandas, sometimes also very small ones. Some of them are made by Swarovski crystal. Maybe in total amount of all things I might have 3000 items,” she answered me. She has been collecting really everything: the small statues, the pictures, the small decorative things, the teddies, the clothes, the toys, the bed sheets, the clocks, the calendars, the art pieces and you can even find one picture of panda on the mat. Just every little piece means treasure for her.
Pandas are everywhere
After few minutes she invited me in to have better image about what we were talking about. It was breathtaking. The giant pandas were everywhere: in her living room, in the kitchen, above the stairs, on all walls. But one thing surprised me the most. Her toilet room seems like a little panda cave. All the stuff — from the tiles over the toilet seat to toilet paper — everywhere you can find the motif of the giant panda. “Ones when my husband and me were walking on street in Turkey, we found by chance a shop with all sanitary stuff. There I saw something what I had not seen until then — the toilet seat. Be honest I am very proud of my toilet room.”
Sometimes she found a little present in her post box. “From time to time I receive a present from the person living in the neighborhood. Sometimes it is a little panda or a postcard. Every time I put back the paper to answer and say Thank you to that person. Today you cannot meet lots of these people who give you a gift without any expectations,” she admits.
Ages Laurence has been dreaming about visiting China again one day to have another chance meet the giant pandas.
So good luck and take care wherever you go, my dear Panda Woman!
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