‘These are the stories behind these bears’: Vancouver ‘Teddy Bear Doctor’ restores antiques
listen to this article
estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article has been generated by AI-based technology. There may be mispronunciations. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve results.
From pet attacks to missing parts to just being loved too much, there’s almost no teddy bear that Ruth Huseman can’t fix.
He is a tailor who has dedicated his retirement to repairing old and broken animals.
Over nearly two decades, she imagines she has repaired thousands of stuffed toys from across North America.
“I never know what’s going to come through the door,” Huseman said.
The surfaces and walls of her Vancouver, BC, home are filled with toy parts, buttons, eyes and lines of fur.
From pet attacks to missing parts to just being loved too much, there’s almost no teddy bear that Ruth Huseman can’t fix. She runs a hospital and spa for stuffed toys out of her Vancouver home.
Fur grafts, eyeball replacement, stuffing replenishment and spa treatments are some of the services she offers.
And she goes out of her way for her clients, sometimes trawling dozens of thrift stores to find the perfect clothes.
If he is not satisfied with how a bear came together? She’ll take it apart and do it again.
Huseman says no two bears are the same, so each toy is a new challenge.
“I learn something new almost every time I fix something,” she said.
But her favorite part is learning the stories behind the toys, noting that some of them are very sentimental.
“It’s a joy to talk to people, learn about the history of bears,” Huseman said.
“There are a lot of touching stories.”
The oldest bear they have recovered was 115 years old, having been in the same family for five generations.
Vedrana Petrovic, a recent Hussman customer, says her plush Ikea golden retriever, Sylvester, looks almost the same as the day she got him a decade ago.
“I thought he was irreplaceable… I’m honestly surprised,” Petrovic said.
Petrovic said she found Sylvester during university when she needed emotional support.
Petrovic described the teddy bear as looking like a piece of spaghetti before his trip to the hospital.
“He was completely deflated, half his body was hanging,” he said.
She said he has been a good huggable friend and hopes he continues to be so for decades to come.
“He’s been a close and dear friend of mine,” Petrovic said.
Huseman says she has a counterpart in Maple Ridge who she is currently training, and hopes she can take over her business when she is too old to continue.
But she says she’ll keep healing bears as long as she can.
“It’s the stories behind these bears…it captures my heart.”
