Once upon a time, there lived an old woman who had no children and no husband. She worked hard every day to sew beautiful wedding dresses for princesses far and wide and deeply wished that she too could one day have a girl whom she could sew a sublime wedding dress for.

One morning, while collecting materials for the night's dinner in her backyard garden, the old woman came upon a fairy stealing her strawberries. Grabbing the fairy, she threatened the fairy to rip its wings off. The fairy desperately begged for mercy and told the old woman of her only son who swallowed some poisonous berries and needed the strawberries to make the antidote for him. Overcome with sympathy for the grieving fairy mother, the old woman let her go, giving her a handful of strawberries for her son. The fairy, filled with gratitude gave the woman a green barleycorn. She told the old woman to sit it in a plate of water and tend to it until it was ready. The old woman, knowing it to be rude to turn down presents from the faerie folk, accepted the barleycorn. She dutifully took care of the barleycorn for months. Day after day, pruning the stray tendrils and refilling the plate of water with the freshest spring water available.

Not long after, as the old woman sat by the fire sewing another wonderfully shimmering wedding dress, the barleycorn sprouted open and out popped a fully formed little girl! Except the girl was tiny! Tiny as the old woman's thumb! The old woman doubled back in shock as the girl peered at the old woman around the stalk and the old woman was immediately smitten. She finally got the daughter she always wanted! The old woman took a small cutting of the dress she was sewing and wrapped it around the little naked thumb-sized princess.

"I shall name you Thumbelina!"

She gathered Thumbelina onto her palm and brought her close to her chest, petting her golden head gently with her finger.

"Mother?" squeaked Thumbelina

Overwhelmed with joy and pride the old woman immediately took to fashioning a little bed out of a walnut shell for Thumbelina.

The old woman, as excited as ever created a beautiful room for Thumbelina in an old wooden box, furnished with silk curtains, a silken bed and wonderful clothes fit for a princess.

As Thumbelina grew, she spent the days with her Mother, sewing gorgeous dresses, making friends with the faerie folk and the animals and birds in her garden. Still thumb-sized, Thumbelina matured into a wonderful and kind flower. She dreamed about being a dressmaker just like her mother, receiving beautiful brides from near and far. 

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One day as Thumbelina was frolicking around in the garden, she saw a small bird struggling to flap its wings. It looked mangy with grey tufts of hair growing in clumpy patches all over its body. It used its small hooked beak to drag its body over the ground to move into the corner, out of sight.

"Oh! It's a baby eagle!" cried Thumbelina.

"I've never seen a bird quite so ugly and alone," she said, as she rushed over to help it.

The bird squawked at her in despair. Thumbelina called over her mice friends to help prop up the wings of the baby bird. The mice loved Thumbelina and desired to repay her whatever way they could for saving them innumerable times from the meadow owl so they came to help her. But a baby eagle is still an eagle, and so, not wanting to tempt the fates, the mice warily nudged the baby eagle into the corner and scattered off.

Thumbelina cared for the baby eagle for weeks, feeding it a regular diet of worms and keeping it from getting preyed on by larger birds, housing the baby eagle in a large box.

Mother helped Thumbelina care for the baby eagle every day. Mother admired Thumbelina's braveheart in caring for a bird that could very well eat her.

"You have a heart so wide, my love. For you, my dream is to see you be a bride." Mother told Thumbelina.

"But I don't want to be a bride, Mother. I want to make dresses."

"Oh, nonsense. You do not need to make dresses for others. You'll find the prince you've always wanted and I'll finally be able to make you a wedding dress like no other!"

"What kind of prince do I want, Mother?" asked Thumbelina in earnest confusion.

"Someone just like you, my darling" Mother cooed.

'Someone just like me' thought Thumbelina

'There might be someone out there, just like me.'