Christmas, 2011

It has been a very rough year. The trial for the man who killed my niece was held this summer. He was found guilty, but only of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. He has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, of which he has served some 4 in the local county jail. He has filed an appeal. Attending the trial was very difficult and painful for me. Additionally, it took so much of my time that I have fallen behind in many areas.

I have taken time to do some more quilting It is like therapy for me. It helps to relieve some of the stress I am dealing with. So I am not getting caught up on things. But I am coping. I just finished 3 lap quilts today and took them to a senior care facility. It is sad to see these people no longer in their own homes and not being cared for by family. The first quilt was given to a man. He was laying on his side on his bed. He had dribble of some sort on his mouth. He seemed quite lonely. I don't know how much he understood or how much he will use the quilt. But at least he had a visitor and a gift. The second quilt was given to a woman who was also in her room and in her bed. She had a cat with her. I was glad to see that. She seemed to genuinely like her quilt. The third was given to a woman sitting on a couch in a room with some other people. I was introduced to her as her daughter. They said she has vision problems. The woman sitting next to her asked me to make lunch for the woman I gave the quilt to and offered to pay me to do so. It was past their dinner time, I am sure. I also am sure they had been fed.

Whether any of them were made any happier, whether any of them will remember tomorrow or any time in the future, I will never know. Considering how much time it takes to make one of these quilts, even the very simple ones, it may be a foolish thing to do. But I want so much to make life better for others in some way. So I will keep at it.

I have one near completion that will be given either to a teenager in a foster home or to the local juvenile hall. I have several others in the planning stage. I hope to have some ready by Mother's Day to take to another senior care facility.

I have bee making good progress with volunteer hours at the local museum. I will need to look into an animal shelter to do some volunteering. I have taken some food and other supplies to some homeless people. There are some people talking about starting a community garden in a nearby town and I hope to donate some trees there if it comes to fruition.

Before taking the quilts to give away, I took a picture of each. I am going to try posting them here. I don't have a good place to take pictures of the quilts and I am inept with cameras. But I will give it a try. Well, that didn't work out. I have pics and the card is in the computer. But when I click on "add images" it does not respond in a way I understand. Maybe another time...