Throwback Thursday

Back in the day, I was in Acteens. 

For those of you who aren't Southern Baptists, Acteens is a mission oriented church group for teenage girls.  The name is short for Active Teens In Missions.  We had lots of fun doing missions projects and things. 

The year I was 14, our leader -- Mrs. Daly-- decided we would make quilted lap robes for nursing home patients.  We all got together at her house one Saturday with all the scrap material we could find to work on them.  We were allowed to use the sewing machine to piece them, but once we got done with that, and got the backing and batting sewn into place, we were supposed to do all the quilting by hand.

That was the year my grandma fell and broke her hip.  She was in the hospital for a week or so, and the day she came home, she had a stroke.   Back into the hospital she went.  After several weeks, she was able to come home again.

While Grandma was in the hospital, I asked Mrs. Daly if I could make my lap robe for her instead of a random nursing home resident.  She said I could, and because I wanted to have it done by the time Grandma got out of the hospital, she also gave me permission to use the sewing machine to quilt it.

However, before I could get the lap robe finished, my Grandma died.  After that, I didn't have the heart to work on it any more.  I stuffed it into the corner behind my mother's sewing machine, where it sat neglected for several weeks.

I was looking at it one day, thinking I really ought to do something with it, when I realized two things:  Christmas was coming, and I had another grandmother.

I sat back down at the sewing machine, and in a few days, the lap robe was done.  I will admit that more than a few tears slipped down my cheeks at the thought of the grandmother I had lost.  Those tears turned to smiles when I saw the look on my Mammaw's face when she opened it that Christmas Eve.

She cherished that lap robe for the rest of her life, and I ...

I will have a treasure to pass down to my own grandchildren, the robe I made for both my grandmas.