The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #44342   Message #652829
Posted By: DancingMom
18-Feb-02 - 03:30 PM
Thread Name: Family Keepsakes: What have YOU kept?
Subject: RE: Family Keepsakes: What have YOU kept?
We have LOTS of things from our parents and grandparents-My grandfather's woodworking tools, a picture of my grandparents at age 16 and 20, right before Grandaddy left for World War II.

My favorite is a quilt. My great-grandmother made the top, a starburst pattern, probably 65 years ago. She kept it in her closet until 1984, when she dug it out, gave it to me, and said, "I'd like to see it finished while I'm alive." I folded it and put it in my closet, where it remained for several years.

My mother-in-law was visiting one day and found the quilt. She said, This won't do. We have to finish it." She carried it back to North Carolina and enlisted the help of some of her quilting buddies to put the back on it and complete the hand stitching then mailed it back to me.

We took the completed quilt to see my great-grandmother, who by then was in a nursing home, frail and sleeping much of the time. We wrapped her up in that quilt, and she remembered it, and seeing it finished 75 years after she made the yellow starburst top, began to weep.

She passed away 2 weeks later. It's one of the most treasured items I have because it was a work of love from my great-grandmother AND my dear mother-in-law. Sharon M.