Alice...

See Little Alice here

Alice has lived at Haven Hope for a long time. 

She remembers a dark street, rain on the cobbles bumping underneath the wheels of a great big pram she was sitting up in, wrapped around by blankets. There were streetlights blinking in the rain that sleeted down, there was the click and stumble of her mother's high heels and the gusting into Alice's pram of cigarette smoke that made her cough.

Her mother's breath was catchy; a combination of smoking intensely as she stumbled over the cobbles, the repeated shock of cold rain hitting her skin through the thin and sodden jacket she was wearing, the sobs escaping her throat intermittantly. Alice's mother didn't speak to her at all, but Alice knew as clearly as if she had been pouring out a torrent of words, what she was thinking and feeling. This was when Alice's silent ways began: previous to that she had been a burbling, chattery baby like any other.

During that journey the blonde toddler and her gasping, stumbling mother seemed to pass through time and their own history - memories binding them together at the same time as preparing them for separation. They reached the huge wrought-iron gates of Haven Hope House at which Alice's mother rang the bell and waited, even though she could have pushed the pram through the smaller side gate and proceeded up the path towards the house. But perhaps she was tired, and so she waited where she had stopped at the larger gates.

For those few moments she gazed directly at her tiny daughter through the raindrops streaming in her eyes. Alice looked back up at her. Perhaps the mother offered the little girl a kiss or perhaps she didn't, Alice can't remember now.

So Angelique waited until she heard footsteps on the gravel drive leading down to the gate, and muffled voices against the rain and wind, then she bent down to slip off her shoes and slink silently away into the shadows.

Alice regularly wanders around singing but does not often speak; she doesn't feel the need, living in her own quiet world. Even the noisy characters quieten around Alice; sometimes lack of words and an intense sense of calm convey more wisdom than authoritative instructiveness.

 There is something unreachable and puzzling about Alice. Perhaps it's her history or perhaps it's a special quality she shared with her mother Angelique. Teresa at Haven Hope describes her lovingly as being 'away with the fairies'.

Alice shares a room at Haven Hope with Grace, they get on quite well together but Alice has been spending a little more time than usual with Martha, because of something that happened recently...

Late one night, Alice inexplicably left her bed and went downstairs. She fetched a stool to stand on and reached up to pull back the massive old bolt on the front door. She then opened it and looked down at a basket under the covered porchway  which contained blankets tucked neatly around a baby boy. No-one could ever understand what had prompted Alice to wake up and do this, but it turned out that the baby was in fact Alice's brother, Cory. Beneath the blankets was a scribbled note from their mother explaining that she wanted her new baby to be placed with his sister at Haven Hope.

Martha, who is quite bossy, has been instructing Alice in the ways of big-sisterhood.

Alice is a button-jointed limbed doll with arms and legs which swivel up and down.

Size approx. 42cm

Each StoryDoll is individually made by artist Tracey Scott-Townsend and may not be exactly as shown.  Once you have placed your order we will contact you to confirm availability and payment.