Ruby is the spirit of the little girl who lives inside all “mature” Red Hatters. She usually dresses in quite the lady-like style and she can comport herself in just as refined a manner as the most royal among us. But, she has an irrepressible side to her personality too, and, try as she might (and we don’t think she tries very hard), she always succumbs to the temptation to just let go and have a ball!

WHERE DID SHE COME FROM?

Now, that is a good question! She just showed up one day on Princess Daughter’s computer screen and demanded to be a part of The Red Hat Society. Maybe I shouldn’t say “demanded”; Ruby is much too sweet to be at all obnoxious. She strongly requested that she be allowed to join us, and, since we had already fallen in love with her, we signed her up then and there.

IS SHE “REAL”?

Ruby is height-challenged, being only 10 inches tall, but she is definitely real. We have discovered, though, that not everyone can see her. It seems that you have to possess a certain spirit of fun to actually see her. Otherwise, she remains a bit imaginary. Occasionally, we do find traces that she has been somewhere (we found a bunch of her little pink slippers at the convention). But we don’t always see her clearly. She seems to be akin to a leprechaun, which, in Irish lore, is a “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t” creature. Even we in the office see her only occasionally. One reason for that is that she is constantly taking off to see what fun there is to be had all over the place. Remember when Peter Pan asked everyone to recite “I believe in fairies”, in order to bring the ailing Tinkerbell back to life? We of The Red Hat Society now ask you, “Do you believe in Ruby?”