One of my first matters of business after telling my family we were expecting was put in a request for an afghan from my Grandmother. I already knew what color I wanted it to be, so I happily selected some skeins and dropped them in the mail as a subtle hint for her to get busy. My grandmother, who is in her nineties has made an afghan for every grandchild and now every great grandchild and I was delighted at the prospect of finally receiving one for my own child.
Now, before you think I am completely selfish I thought by mailing them to her in the Summer it would give her plenty of time to have it completed by Christmas. My Grandmother busily toiled away on my afghan and would mention it from time to time when we chatted over the phone. My Grandmother has a strong affinity for boys and no one seemed more delighted we were having a boy than her. "Boys are just better" she would tell me and seeing as we were having one I had to agree.
In the Fall, Asher passed away, a couple days later I made a heartbreaking phone call to my Grandmother. She could tell something was not wrong by the sound of my voice and I slowly broke the news of Asher's passing. She mentioned how every time she tried to work on the afghan that week she would feel upset and not be able to. Oh how sad it made me not only the loss of our child, but my hopes of receiving this precious afghan were completely dashed.
Fast forward a couple months and my grandmother came up to visit for Christmas like planned. Not much was mentioned of the afghan other than a few subtle hints to my Mom that I hoped she would finish it. Right before my Grandmother left in March she presented me with a box tied with a satin ribbon. My heart almost leapt out of my chest and I hoped more than anything the afghan would be in the box. I slowly opened the box and beheld my precious afghan. I was so touched she had pushed through the pain, the heartache and the grief and continued to work so diligently on this. The afghan was the perfect compliment to my nursery colors and an even greater manifestation of the love my Grandmother has for me. I will treasure this forever and it means even more to me after having lost Asher.
7 comments:
What a beautiful blanket and story. Such a treasured keepsake.
Of course that was me again . . . although I am sure Stephen feels the same way.
I have been reading your blog for over a year now. I found it when I did a search for restaurant reviews in the Seattle area. I have continued to check your blog since then because you post fun local things and I am always on the hunt for thing to do with my family in the Seattle area. As I started reading I found that we belong to the same church :)
This post today made me tear up and I just wanted to comment and tell you I am thinking about you and your family. I know the things you post are personal but reading other's stories connect us together. We have dealt with fertility issues and I found that opening up has helped me and others as we move through this process. I am sure others feel the same about your stories.
I was excited to see you got a "shout out" from Design Mom last week. That is big time!!
Hope you are doing well and keep eating at fun places and seeing cool sights so I can add to my list of things to do :)
Hope you have a great day!!
Beautiful! I LOVE those colors. My mom finished Elaine's quilt the month after she passed away. I am so happy to have it even though I know many tears were shed as she finished it.
Oh Stephen......I mean Tara, thanks for the sweet comment.
Jessica-
Mothers and grandmothers are the best. I am so happy you have a quilt for Elaine. I was just telling Cameron the other evening, how our two littles ones are probably friends.
Hi Megs-
Thank you for being such a committed follower and for leaving such a sweet note on my blog. I am happy to hear you found my blog and have been enjoying reading it for awhile. There is so much anonymity with the internet, it is nice to know who my readers are and where their interests lie.
There are lots more fun things planned here in the next couple of months.
Lisette
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