How To Make An American Quilt

Remember Cooper?

I remember Cooper.
And I never knew him.
Yet when I close my eyes I can see his face.
It truly is the strangest thing.

How do you miss someone you never knew?
How do you grieve for a life that was gone before you knew of its existence?

With great caution,
and courageous might.

I have been working on this blog post for nearly two  years.
I have never put in words what Cooper's life has done for me.
The hole his death has left in my heart.
I was always afraid that my grief
for the little boy I never knew
was somehow
misplaced.

Wrong.

Strange.

But I have realized the reason for such profound sorrow
and magnificent joy
when I think Cooper's name.

Lucinda.

She says I am her gift from Cooper.

Perhaps she is mine.

I think that her soul and mine

were sisters somehow.

In another time

and place.

And we were brought together again

in this life

by Lucinda's precious baby boy.

The boy with a devilish grin

and a halo of hair.

Like an angel.

I cannot think of Cooper without 

at once

crying and smiling.

I cannot imagine what the memory of him must do to his momma.
His daddy, too.

It seemed fitting that the first block I made
for the quilt Lucinda and I are making together
honor him.

His legacy.

His birds.

The middle of the block: 

an owl and a pussycat. 

Friends.

Not a care in the world.

(The owl was Athena's bird, by the way)

The main fabric in the block Lucinda made.
The owl and the pussycat.

Serendipity?
Fate?

Neither of us knows what the blocks the other is making
look like.

They are a surprise.

I have three more done.
I cannot blog them until I send them.

I am curious to see if there are more similarities in our block-making.

I cannot wait to see this quilt come together.
It will serve as a constant reminder
of the ties that bind.

How the hearts of friends
may be separated
by time
or distance
but will find a way
to each other.

I am so blessed to have met you, Lucinda.
I am thankful for you every day.

I hope that
when we finally
"meet"
that you don't think I'm a giant dork.

Oh wait, I AM a giant dork.

Cheers,
A