4 minute read

My Teddy Bear

Written by Gloria Salavarria

I used to call my husband, “My Teddy Bear! My Short, Dark & Handsome!”

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Yes, Joe was 6 inches shorter than I in height, but he was taller than I was in years of experience and far more knowledgeable in the fine art of getting others to like him a lot. Joe came from a culture and a career that was the exact opposite of mine, and he was 21 years my senior.

He was an exceptionally good salesman and in his many years of working for Libbey Glass, a division of Owens-Illinois, he became the sales manager in charge of all Libbey Glass sales in Canada, Spain and all Latin American countries south of the U.S. border. (Not only was he charming, but he also was fluent in Spanish and French, thanks to his Basque-Mexican heritage.)

However, because of my engineering career and my assignment every 2½ years to the next Owens-Illinois plant that was in trouble, Joe decided to take early retirement at the age of 56 and follow me around in all those job transfers, and so we moved six times in the course of 16 years.

Joe was a very tolerant husband, and a great asset to me whenever I would invite my guys from the plant to come over to our house to “get away from the stresses of the job.”

Joe was very good at getting my guys to relax, have a good time and then, when they went back to work on Monday, they were in a much better mood to solve the problems we faced and thus we were better able to turn the plant back into being a good “profit center” once more.

Within our household, though, I was the one who handled the money; and Joe, with his charm and social talents, handled the fun.

Still, Joe was a congenital homebody; but I always dragged him out of his “comfort zone” and showed him the surrounding countryside. I took him to places that he had never imagined existed but nevertheless, found fascinating.

We were a partnership of opposites. He was strong in areas where I was weak; and I was strong in areas where he was “more than happy to let me handle it!”

I learned a lot from him.

He did, at one point, offer to father a child with me, but I reminded him that he’d be the primary caregiver of this child and just to be sure, I let him “babysit” his 3-yearold granddaughter for a whole day.

That was enough to convince him that his already having six children by his previous wife was enough! No need to go for Salavarria child #7!

José Salvador Salavarría y Iñiguez (also known as Joe Salavarria)

Raising a kid is definitely a young person’s sport, and I knew that it would be too much for a guy headed into his 60s.

Still, because of the 21-year age difference between us, I realized that I’d become a widow at some point – and that time came on December 22, 2003.

Joe taught me a lot about life: what to do, and what not to do – and I became aware that we are mortal beings and therefore, we should do what we really want to do in life now, and not keep putting it off until later because too often, later is too late!

And so, in November 2005 I jumped on board the containership Condor and sailed from Los Angeles down to Tauranga, New Zealand.

After we landed in Tauranga, I then rented a car and spent six months checking out every nook and cranny in New Zealand, and while I was there, I met some wonderful people with whom I’ve stayed in touch now for 15 years.

I’ve also traveled to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Antarctica, Thailand, Japan, the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia), Alaska, Svalbard, Spain, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, and back to New Zealand twice.

I had hoped to have made a fourth trip down to New Zealand this winter, but couldn’t do that because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jan Whittington, a teddy bear artist.

Even so, I am now 74 and beginning to slow down. I’m beginning to feel decrepitude creeping up on me, but this morning I just happened to look again at the two teddy bears that I had placed on a bookshelf in my living room.

Shortly after my husband passed away, I gave away most of his clothing to local charities but when I came down to his two favorite business suits, I just couldn’t part with them.

By chance, I met a lady here in town who had, as her favorite hobby, the habit of creating teddy bears.

Often, I had lovingly called Joe “my teddy bear” – and suddenly it dawned on me what I could do with those two business suits of his. I took them over to Jan and she made teddy bears from them which I gave to his kids, but I kept two of the bears for myself—one from each suit.

Joe also served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII before he joined Libbey Glass as one of their best salesmen.

It has been more than 18 years now since Joe passed away, but he is still here: in my mind and on my bookshelf in the living room.

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