A Gift

It has been a long winter, even though winter is half done.  My father's passing, my own health issues, which are now so much better it is hard for me to believe, and then finally, my father in law.  My father in law was buried this past weekend.  He died quietly aged just a few days, four to be precise, before he reached one hundred years.  It was a life well lived and loved and it meant a large family gathering in the town where Brian and I both grew up and where we started our married life.  

I know who these people are.  My boys know who these people are. They started school with these now grown kids.  We know many of the family's histories at least in a basic way.  At least half of them were roots very much like my own:  from Germany via the United States.  The other half were immigrants from Ukraine.  In most ways, this is not a story uncommon on the prairies of Canada.  They are a kind and caring community that pulls together when they need to.  It is a great place to have grown up and to call my first home. Like many, my life moved a lot of different places, but it will always be home and a place where people know me and my story even when they are only lightly acquainted.  It is a place where I will always belong.  Roots go deep.

So when my lovely sister in law, who still lives in the community sent me a gift, via my sons and their weekend trip of love and duty, I was a little surprised and oh so very touched.  The community has a prayer shawl ministry and my sister in law sent one.

It's lovely.  It is rows of creams with rich warm greens shifting and fading and back again.  The yarn is most likely an acrylic ( Many go to nursing home and hospitals in the area, abd washing is critical for those institutions here) but it is soft and warm and really pretty.  However, the thing I value the most is the care and kindness and thought with which it was made.    The makers name was tagged to the shawl and I was so pleased.  The lady who worked it was a cousin of my father's.  I understand how much of her heart, spirit, kindness and her prayers for whatever the receiver needed went into this lovely wrap.

Many years ago, when Brian died, I was sent one by a good friend of our family who is also part of the prayer shawl ministry, as a wish for comfort to me. I don't know if I ever really expressed my thoughts properly though on what it means to me.  The prayer shawl I received before was like a beacon of comfort to me and the idea of it still comforts me to this day.  It has been a long winter and someone was praying for peace and ease for a weary soul and that is huge.  It isn't just a very pretty thing, it is rich with meaning to me, and warms me to my very heart.

I have a closeup of the stitch pattern.  It is really interesting.  The shawl has been crocheted in this pattern that I am not familiar with.

Of course I spent the whole day, trying to figure out the stitch she used, a sort of mental game I like to play.  How did they do that?  I have some of it figured out, but the books come out tomorrow.  If I can't figure it out, I will search for it. It's the kind of thing I love to do.  

So that is part of the plan for tomorrow.  To pin the wrap on as I sip my morning coffee and sit and try to sort out the rest of the design and if I can't do that, to find it in my stitch pattern books.  Wish me luck.