This website and They Never Grow Up Nursery is dedicated to my very dear friend, Daniel Chua who passed into heaven on September 11, 2011 in the Philippines.
Dan was a kind, giving and loving man who was always eager to give a helping hand. Although not the only person who has helped make They Never Grow Up Nursery what it is today, Dan played the most major role and his passing has prompted me to dedicate this site to him.
My husband met Dan in late 1999/early 2000, via a knife transaction through eBay. Dan made beautiful knives and taught my husband a lot about different types of knives.
Dan quickly became a wonderful family friend and even though we all knew that we would probably never meet physically, our families shared live chats, phone calls, family videos, thousands of emails and hours upon hours of live chats. Dan never forgot a birthday or an anniversary and always sent greetings on all holidays, even those that were not recognized in his country. He knew the ages of our kids and grandkids and all of the names of our pets.
Late in 2001, I discovered the art of reborn dolls on eBay. I'd never been one to be on the internet at all~it scared the life out of me, but I became fascinated with these dolls. On the other hand, Dan was horribly frightened by dolls of any kind! Sometimes I would send him links just to scare him!
Sorry Dan! LOL
He was such a good sport though. So good in fact, that after watching and talking about the reborn art to death for 3 years, one day, in an email, I said, "Dan, I think I might try creating a reborn doll" to which he replied, "Go for it Debbie!" so... I did! Dan even purchase one of the first book tutorials that I ever looked at~just to help me along.
I am sure that he had many of nightmares as I sent him progress pictures and even more as I needed his help...wow...in SO many ways. I didn't know what the best ways to take pictures were. I didn't know how to re-size pictures. I didn't know how to work on eBay. I didn't have a website. Dan helped with ALL of those things and more. I would send him all of my picture files to which he would re-size and send back to me ready to post on eBay. Dan ran the first They Never Grow Up Nursery website for the first 6 years in existence. At first, he put all of the pictures onto my website, then later taught me how to post the pictures onto the site. On that site, he/we had downloaded EVERY TNGUN reborn baby doll ever made. I've not been able to recreate that on this new website due to the hours it will take to do it. (The old site had to be taken down January of 2011 due to so many breaks in the original HTML code~breaks that were too difficult for Dan to fix as his internet service had grown very poor over the years. With guidance from Dan, I have built this new website.)
From banners to template help to finding good business resources, Dan was the "go to" man. Any hour of the day or night, Dan was there with eagerness to help.
Dan's physical heart failed him at a very young age but his spiritual heart and his heart for helping never did.
Until we meet in Glory, My Friend, rest in peace.