Telling your life story…..
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I do believe that it is entirely possible to tell your life’s story through t-shirts. I wrote a few days ago about hangers and how the pile of the commodity that was once scarce quickly grew as I removed Robert Kenui Pope's clothing to put into a pile for Goodwill. I thought the pile of hangers large, that is until today. Today Chelle, Becca and I pulled out all of myDarlin’s t-shirts, Aloha shirts, Chef’s jackets, sweatshirts and anything else you can imagine in preparation for the #MQP. What, you ask is the #MQP? It is the Memory Quilt Project in honor of myDarlin, the kid’s Father, the grandchildren’s Tutu Chef and Kawehi’s bruddah.
When I met myDarlin’ in 2003, he had just moved to the ATL and even though he didn’t have much in the sense of material items, he was extremely organized. His t-shirts all hung by color in his closet, a practice I kept up through the years even for myself. There are one-time favorite shirts that have gone by the wayside, because Tony doesn’t drive for The Home Depot anymore, you grew out of it (isn’t that only supposed to happen to kids?) or it simply became threadbare and your wife won’t let you be seen in public with it on. We have them all!
We laughed, as well as shed a few tears, as each shirt was numbered, a photo taken of it and a story shared about the shirt’s origin. As we move through the project, there will be photos of Robert wearing the shirts and more memories shared. I laughed as Chelle buttoned one of the shirts up for me to take a photo, and was one button off because it sooooo reminded me of Robert. Things that mortified me, such as crooked buttoned shirts made him laugh and want to keep it that way just to tease me. There are concert t-shirts, Kona dress shirts, Saints Championship t-shirts and the list goes on and on.
Soon the shirts will be cut into many pieces and sewn together by a wonderful friend and craftsperson. And when these wonderful quilts are complete, each of us will find ourselves wrapped in the warmth of his love and happy memories. Can you tell your life story with t-shirts? Maybe not ALL of it, that would be huge, huh? but we can share the important parts and that helps to tell the story of who we are.
Today I am filled with gratitude as I recount how blessed I am to have so many wonderful memories to share with you, our Ohana. There is a tribute that has gone viral online about the fact that it doesn’t matter when you came into or departed this crazy world of ours, but rather how you lived the ‘dash’ between. 1955 ------- 2014 would be how myDarlin’s reads, as one dash couldn’t possibly hold it all!
#KeepLookingUp
I do believe that it is entirely possible to tell your life’s story through t-shirts. I wrote a few days ago about hangers and how the pile of the commodity that was once scarce quickly grew as I removed Robert Kenui Pope's clothing to put into a pile for Goodwill. I thought the pile of hangers large, that is until today. Today Chelle, Becca and I pulled out all of myDarlin’s t-shirts, Aloha shirts, Chef’s jackets, sweatshirts and anything else you can imagine in preparation for the #MQP. What, you ask is the #MQP? It is the Memory Quilt Project in honor of myDarlin, the kid’s Father, the grandchildren’s Tutu Chef and Kawehi’s bruddah.
When I met myDarlin’ in 2003, he had just moved to the ATL and even though he didn’t have much in the sense of material items, he was extremely organized. His t-shirts all hung by color in his closet, a practice I kept up through the years even for myself. There are one-time favorite shirts that have gone by the wayside, because Tony doesn’t drive for The Home Depot anymore, you grew out of it (isn’t that only supposed to happen to kids?) or it simply became threadbare and your wife won’t let you be seen in public with it on. We have them all!
We laughed, as well as shed a few tears, as each shirt was numbered, a photo taken of it and a story shared about the shirt’s origin. As we move through the project, there will be photos of Robert wearing the shirts and more memories shared. I laughed as Chelle buttoned one of the shirts up for me to take a photo, and was one button off because it sooooo reminded me of Robert. Things that mortified me, such as crooked buttoned shirts made him laugh and want to keep it that way just to tease me. There are concert t-shirts, Kona dress shirts, Saints Championship t-shirts and the list goes on and on.
Soon the shirts will be cut into many pieces and sewn together by a wonderful friend and craftsperson. And when these wonderful quilts are complete, each of us will find ourselves wrapped in the warmth of his love and happy memories. Can you tell your life story with t-shirts? Maybe not ALL of it, that would be huge, huh? but we can share the important parts and that helps to tell the story of who we are.
Today I am filled with gratitude as I recount how blessed I am to have so many wonderful memories to share with you, our Ohana. There is a tribute that has gone viral online about the fact that it doesn’t matter when you came into or departed this crazy world of ours, but rather how you lived the ‘dash’ between. 1955 ------- 2014 would be how myDarlin’s reads, as one dash couldn’t possibly hold it all!
#KeepLookingUp
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