meeting doll enthusiasts in unexpected places

Thought I'd share this little story with you guys-- I'd love to hear your own if you've had experiences similar to this one

 

A year or so ago I worked in a skilled nursing facility with a 14 bed sub-acute rehab unit. Towards the latter part of my stay at this place I found myself picking up shifts on this particular unit pretty frequently-- it was closer to the career goals I have, and was a nice change of scenery from unit I was normally stationed on (40 bed dementia care unit, 20 of which were mine ).

 

While working on our short stay unit, I cared for a woman named Ethel a few times. Ethel had been with us for about a month and was getting very close to discharge when I met her. She was really friendly and was very patient with me as I (a newer nurse at the time)would fumble through some of her dressing changes. One shift I came into her room to take her vital signs, and noticed a bunch of Barbies on her dresser; there were probably about 7 there-- all dressed nicely and on little stands. I asked Ethel if her granddaughters had come to visit or something, and was really surprised when she said "Nope, those are all mine! My daughter brought them from my home to help me feel better. They're very good company!"

 

She went on to talk about how she had started collecting them and would buy many dolls that had been "well-loved" so that she could restore them to their original state. She said she got so much enjoyment out of fixing up their hair all nice and touching up their makeup and making sure they were dressed to the nines in stylish clothing. She then showed me some pictures of the rest of her collection at home, all in a big groups for cute and cheery photos.

 

I never really talk about my involvement in the hobby, and so when she started chatting so happily about this, I couldn't help but tell her about my girls, too! She was elated. It was such a nice surprise to come across another doll enthusiast, especially one so welcoming of others in the hobby. I had meant to show her some pics of my girls, but she had been discharged by the next time I got around to working short stay again. Still, this is a very happy memory for me and I think about it a lot.

 

Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?

Story time from fall of 2016:

 

I'm a full-time college student, so I end up meeting and talking to a lot of people. Last semester, I had to take an essay-based writing course as a general education requirement for my majors. Toward the end of the semester, everyone in my class (about 20 students) had to have a one-on-one meet with our professor. I thought she was pretty cool, but we didn't talk much.

 

So, on the day of my meeting, I happened to notice a Fairyland 2016 calendar in her office, just hanging around. I couldn't resist asking her about it and, lo and behold, she's also a collector! She prefers minifees, but it was pretty cool that we had this hobby in common. Where we are, you don't meet a whole lot of other collectors, so we sat and chatted about dolls for an extra ten minutes or so. We follow each other on instagram now.

A bit OT but its nice to see a fellow nurse in the hobby . I wish I can tell you guys a good story but I've yet to meet a fellow collector where I'm at. Most of the people I know are either into porcelain dolls or scared of dolls or just uninterested in dolls in general. Its great to read about how you all meet other doll enthusiasts in your respective cities though.

uhh.. quite a lot of resin BJD enthusiasts at the Ren Faire?