'One last hug' at Bear Essentials

It’s the final few stitches for Bear Essentials in Bawnboy, which will close its doors on December 20.

Rooted in the community for the past 25 years, Anke Morgenroth and Nico Bartsch have come to the difficult decision to retire.

For now, the door remains open and leads the Celt into a teddy bear haven with hundreds of cute beady-eyed stuffed toys watching on from the shelves.

Some come to life in your hands with sound and moveable limbs, however what really sets the Bear Essentials’ bears apart is that they are made from mohair, a fabric that gives customers a cuddly friend for life, as Anke describes how they can last for up to seventy years. Puppies are the number one culprit when it comes to wear and tear, however customers can take them back to the teddy bear hospital for treatment.

On the day the Celt stops by, Nico has a line of bears awaiting the attention of his needle and thread.

Meanwhile the Silver Bear Centre has seen hundreds of classes containing up to sixty people leave with a fully stuffed and stitched handmade teddy bear; community groups, schools, birthday parties, hen parties and even weddings have been hosted at the centre.

“How do you share 25 years worth of memories?” Anke ponders, when asked to reflect on the career she crafted for herself in Bawnboy.

Among the “most precious” moments are those she shared with people who came back to thank Bear Essentials after receiving their bear from the hospital or, when customers come back with their bear they made as a child.

“I must say all of our customers over the past 25 years have been really nice customers, and we have really close connections with people. This is not a gift shop, it is a specialised teddy bear shop. People who came here came because they like teddy bears and shared a lot of their own memories.”

The mum of four always adored teddy bears when she was younger, and still has her childhood bear with her in Ireland all the way from Hamburg. She began her business venture by creating mohair collectable teddy bears, which are fully jointed like the old German Steiff bears. The passion eventually “outgrew” their Bawnboy home.

“From there it grew into a teddy bear shop. We always had the largest collection of teddy bears in one shop in Ireland here,” she says, looking at the remainder of their impressive collection.

“It’s the love for teddy bears and my love for communicating with people that kept me going all these years, but I think it’s time [to retire] now.”

Anke has been thinking of retirement for the past few years, thoughts which escalated since her diagnosis with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) three years ago.

The syndrome means Anke experiences pain in different parts of her body, and she never knows when it will occur. She is taking it as a sign to “slow down”.

This month marks CRPS month, and Anke is taking the opportunity to outline her frustration about the lack of awareness on the syndrome.

“It’s an illness and there is no cure for it,” she says.

“It means we really need to find out how we can help people who have that condition.

“A lot of doctors don’t really know about it,” she adds.

Anke worked with two pain coaches in the United States, in an attempt to retrain her brain to react differently to pain.

“With CRPS you get pain maybe just by going outside and having cold wind hit your hand or your foot. You are really retraining your brain to make sure you are okay if you go out in cold wind, that nothing is going to happen.

“There’s lots of methods and that helped me a great deal.”

While the centre and hospital will close by the end of the year, Anke told the Celt they “might” have someone who will take over the Bear Essentials brand and “everything which comes with” it.

“I will miss it [Bear Essentials] so much, it’s the customers and the people that I will miss. I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you,” she shares, expressing her gratitude to her customers and everybody who has helped them since the beginning.

Bear Essentials would like to give all its customers “one last hug” on December 6 from 1-4pm, when they will be serving festive treats such as German stollen, mulled wine and mince tarts to say goodbye at the Silver Bear Centre. All teddy bears will be 25% off on the day.