“When we make something it holds more than just the materials we use.” This is what Miss Henrietta says in Flights of Fancy, Crow Johnson Evan’s book of short stories, essays and novellas. As Miss Henrietta weaves a memory rug, she explains only good things can be discussed while making it. Bad thoughts mustn’t be braided into the rug.

I love this idea. Miss Henrietta put into words what I’ve always thought. I love old things with a history and a soul and a memory.

When I was eight years old, Nana made me a quilt. My turtle quilt. If our house was on fire or hit by an unlikely tsunami, it would be one of the first things I would grab. If our house was attacked by zombies or aliens, I would hide under it.

For forty-two years and two days, the quilt has been with me. It traveled from the farm in Arkansas to college in Waco to Dallas where it now lives. It’s my Linus blanket.

I remember the imposing quilt frame set up in her living room. Although I don’t know exactly what thoughts filled Nana’s mind as she hand stitched the fabric scraps together, I have a good idea…

Sunday School lesson…
the cotton crop…
Staci and me…
Momma…
Uncle Rex and Frances…
what pie to cook for Papa that night…
the weather…
her sisters and brothers…
cleaning house…
the irises growing around the trees in the front yard…Those thoughts now live as memories sewed into my quilt.

Because Nana never uttered a bad word, the quilt cloaks me in blessed assurance, the tune she always whistled.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Musical Pairing:

Blessed Assurance, Alan Jackson