The Eight of Hearts

On Wednesday, I met with Diane Church of the Parkinson's Center for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. When I left, I had agreed to make a quilt that they can use on their brochure for their symposium in April.

This is the top of that quilt, sans decoration at this point. These eight hearts have a story to tell.

During the month of August, I spent a lot of time on the Cape with my Mom. When I packed for what I knew was my last trip to see her, I packed a few books (schlocky mysteries) but I also set up and brought some hand sewing because I figured that reading would become impossible.

I was right about the reading. I arrived on the Cape on Monday afternoon. By Tuesday, I could no longer read. The words just wouldn't stick in my head and dividing my attention between a page of text and my Mom's next breath was not doable.

I switched to appliquéing these hearts. I learned a needle-turning appliqué technique from one of the women in my quilt guild and wanted more practice. Hearts are a great shape to appliqué because they are curves and points, both innies and outies.

I sewed while I sat on a chair next to Mom's bed. Keeping my hands busy helped keep me focused and calmer but in many respects, I had no idea what I was sewing.

It wasn't until I got back to Vermont and got my feet back under me a bit that I unpacked my stuff and started putting it away. That's when I discovered I had sewn eight hearts, these eight hearts to be specific.

Now eight is Mom's number—eight kids, eight grandkids, eight years more with us than Dad, eight months to say good-bye, etc.

Eight hearts.

This quilt will be the focus of much of my attention over the next few days because it needs to be photographed in its finished form before February 10 so that it can be on the brochure for the Parkinson's symposium.

For the first time since she died, I feel Mom's life extending through mine.

Eight hearts. I'll bet she likes this quilt.