SciFi Man and I drove halfway across the country to visit our families for the holidays. It’s been wonderful to see our loved ones, whom we generally don’t see for the rest of the year, and to get some much needed rest. We’ve shared a lot of good food and retold old stories.
Christmas also brought the unexpected loss of my grandfather. He had been ill for a long time, but his death was still a surprise. My immediate family and I traveled to Nebraska to be with extended family and my grandmother. Two and a half weeks before he died, my grandfather told me about a dream he had recently had. He dreamed that he was making a quilt, and awoke with the feeling that he really did need to start quilting. He was colorblind, so my grandmother picked out the fabrics, and he cut out the pieces. At the time, I was delighted that my 77 year old grandfather, who had never made a quilt in his life, had decided to start this project. Now, his quilt blocks have taken on a little more meaning for me. It’s as if he knew his time was limited and he wanted to create something that would last.
My grandfather was not able to finish the quilt he started. I collected the pieces he had cut, and the fabric he selected for the back of the quilt, and I will finish it for him. It’s only right that his dream be realized. I will miss him very much, but I take comfort in the fact that his suffering is over and that he left such a precious heirloom behind.
Glad you’re doing that, Shannon. He’d have been happy about it, I think.