one last blanket

 

This little baby blanket has a story behind it.

My mother is in a nursing home due to a severe stroke that weakened her legs and her hands. She no longer can stand on her own and her arms and hands won't move as they should. So she has lost the ability to do the things that she enjoyed in the past.

All my life I remember my mother doing one type of craft or another. She was always sewing, crocheting, embroidering; she even painted a mural on our living room wall. But the one thing she did the most was crocheting. I am sure she had learned this art form from her mother, my grandmother. Through out the years my mother crocheted a blanket for all of us kids and as her family grew she made sure to crochet a blanket for each grandchild and great grandchild, as did my grandmother. Here is a picture of the blankets I have from my mother (second in the pile and bottom) and grandmother (middle). The top blanket is the one that she made for her great grandchild.

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Fourteen months ago our son and his wife gave birth to my mother's third great grandchild. At that time my mother told me that she wished she had her crocheting hooks and yarns with her. I wasn't sure why she wanted to begin crocheting again, but I thought it couldn't be a bad thing, it could help in her therapy. So I went out and bought her a crochet hook and a couple of skeins of yarn.

Last month I flew out to visit her. This was our first visit since the nursing home had completely opened from being locked down from Covid. One day while I was there she asked me to look in a gift bag that she had tucked behind her bed. In it I found a half completed baby blanket. She told me that she had used one of the skeins of yarn but she just didn't feel like she could finish the blanket due to her hands hurting. She asked me to finish it for her and then give it to her new great grandbaby. 

It was important to her because I'm sure, even though she didn't say it, she knew this would be the last blanket that she would ever make for her children. This makes me sad because I know that she is in her last days, but I admire her for trying to make just one more. 

crochet

When I was young, my mother taught me how to sew, embroider and crochet. I tried my best to enjoy sewing. I remember making a purse out of old jeans and I had to make a skirt for Home Economics class, which I hated every minute of sewing that skirt. I just couldn't get the hang of it. I enjoyed embroidery and crocheting more than sewing. I enjoyed most of all learning the things that made my mother happy and it felt good to be with her.

But over the years those skills faded and I didn't follow my mother's desire to make blankets and baby clothes and sweaters, scarfs and hats.

Several weeks ago I began to feel the urge to start crocheting again but I didn't know if I could do it. I didn't know where to begin. But then I remembered that a friend of mine crochets baby clothes and sells them at craft shows. So I asked this friend if she would help me renew my skills and desire. She gave me some advice, some instructions and told me that I could find tutorials YouTube. I got excited and started to believe that I could crochet again. 

Unfortunately my mother is not able to crochet anymore. But with the memory of my mother's instructions, the help of a friend and the help of YouTube tutorials, I am excited to learn anew this old hobby.