Grandma Lil

Grandma Lil had her 96th birthday this year.  She is an amazing woman.  She is tough. She survived the death of  2 children and 2 husbands, brothers and sisters.  She is soft and loves her grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She is harsh and critical; don't give her a present she has no use for....She is tight lipped and you can confide in her.  She is verbal. Sometimes it's not fun to hear what she has to say.  She has taken care of each of us in her very special way.  When the girls were little she had a child sized grocery cart that she let them use to "go shopping" in her pantry.  There were many times that those "shopping trips" were life savers because we were short on cash......"Grandma, the girls would say, "Mommy is out of this and needs some."   She has what we call the "Grandma Lil whisper!" You know that whisper. Everyone within 25 ft. hears it....and it's generally not something everyone within 25 feet should  hear!  She is generous. She has a biting tongue.  She had a cabinet we all loved.  It was filled with candy, gum, chips...everything you don't need, and you never left her house with out a trip to visit it. 

Grandma Lil now lives in a nursing home.  It kills me that she has to live there but she is in Ohio and I am in Texas. 

In December, just before her birthday, we visited.  She is the same grandma she has always been...just a bit older.  I need to repeat myself more often and sometimes just a bit louder but she is still the same.  The Grandma Lil whisper is even louder. The biting remarks a bit grumpier but her love and kindness still radiates.  She looks exactly the same as she always has!

This year at retreat I decided, at the last minute, to make Grandma Lil a birthday pillow.  I had none of the birthday  fabric I wanted to use.  No fusible, no fiberfill and nothing to use for a backing.    In other words, I was completely  prepared! Enter friends!!!! This one gave me fabric, that one fiberfill and another the backing.  Together we stitched together a little pillow filled with love.

She loved the pillow! She especially liked the fact that my friends helped to make it special.

Friends and family....it's what it's all about!