Strangers come together to help Vancouver woman find special stolen teddy bear

Mara Soriano and Mama Bear.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Global News)

Mama Bear was Mara Soriano's last link to her late mother, and thanks to the kindness of strangers and two good Samaritans, the stuffed animal is back where she belongs.

Mara's mom, Marilyn Soriano, made the stuffed animal at Build-A-Bear in 2017. Her creation, dubbed Mama Bear, had a pair of glasses and jacket like one she wore. Marilyn, who had been diagnosed with cancer, also recorded a message for her daughter that was put inside the bear. Mara told The Canadian Press that her mother's voice would later change because of the cancer, and "that bear was basically the last reminder of the mom that I knew — it was her voice that I remembered growing up." Marilyn died in June 2019.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.