Getting Your Fix

Are you the kind of person who hates to throw anything out? Then you know how hard it can be to find someone willing to mend that tear, repair that engine, or refurbish that antique. That’s where we can help. We’ve found folks who can fix practically anything — from cuckoo clocks to Cessnas, dolls to door dings. So don’t toss your tattered treasures into the trash — pick up the phone instead

By Valerie Havas

Dolls in Distress

“Doctor” Noreen Morris of Tonner Doll Company

12-14 Hurley Ave., Kingston 845-339-9537 ext. 116, www.the-doll-hospital.com

If you broke your leg, you’d rush yourself to the emergency room, right? So it’s only natural that when a cherished doll breaks a limb, damages an eye, or starts going bald, she’s rushed to the hospital too. Noreen Morris, the chief of staff at the new, state-of-the-art medical facility at the Tonner Doll Company Store, has restored and repaired countless doll patients over the years.

“I started in the late ’70s by fixing up the old dolls I found at yard sales,” she remembers. Ironically, she never played with dolls as a child. “With two brothers and a neighborhood full of boys, I was usually climbing trees, fishing, playing cowboys and indians — not playing with dolls.” It wasn’t until her two daughters were born that she began appreciating, and collecting, dolls. After operating her own doll shop and doll hospital for awhile, she joined the Tonner Doll Company as their resident doll doctor.

So what’s a typical day like for a doll doctor? “Most commonly, we see orthopedic issues, where the limbs need to be reattached,” she says. While something relatively simple like a new wig can be accomplished on an outpatient basis, more complicated procedures may require an overnight stay.

Morris’ most memorable repair job involved “Aunt Ada,” a beautiful German-made bisque head doll from the late 1800s/early 1900s. Restoring Ada called for “the works,” Morris says: the composition fingers were rebuilt and repainted, the doll restrung, the wig cleaned and restyled. The client — a descendant of the doll’s original owner — was ecstatic.

But Morris’ most unforgettable customer was an eight-year-old girl who was about to have corrective eye surgery. Coincidentally, her doll had ill-set, crossed eyes. “She wanted me to fix her dolly’s eyes while she was having hers fixed,” Morris smiles.

Morris’ work seems more like a calling than a job. “I really love what I do,” she enthuses. “When the owners come in and see their beloved dolls repaired and restored, they often gasp and cry,” she observes. “And I cry, too!”

Prices, which vary according to the complexity of the job, begin at about $25 (to have a doll completely restrung).