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a blanket of love. ‘Can I ride on the cart?’ we would both ask my Mother as we walked through the double glass doors of the A&P grocery store all those years ago. And of the rarest of occasions, she would say yes. With her hand-written grocery list, we would walk up and down each aisle, asking like our children asked us, and our grandchildren ask our children, for the big box of cereal with the best toy in it and every other item marketed at eye level for a child. We help to put cans on the conveyor belt, price tag up and marvel at how quickly the cashier rings each individual item up. Then she reaches for the round dispenser, putting her finger in the slot matching the dollar amount my Mother spent, turned it much like an old rotary phone and S&H green stamps came streaming out.
And we so wanted to lick the back of the stamps before she would carefully place them in the book, She kept the catalog of items that could be purchased in the magazine rack alongside of the Sears, JC Penney and Wards catalogs, and checked regularly to see what she could buy. And one day, I can’t even remember when and so wish she was here with us to be able to ask her, she went to the store to redeem her books of carefully pasted stamps for two twin-sized white blankets with the daintiest of pink roses edged with white satin binding, and two matching lamps. And as we said our prayer, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep….’, we knew that we were covered in a blanket of love.
‘G’ crochet hook and variegated pastel yarn in hand, I created a chain of what at the time seemed like an appropriate length for a blanket for my unborn baby. At the age of 19, I’d already been making creations for what seemed like years (about four to be exact), therefore thought that I knew what I was doing, even though I had never taken this large of a project on. One skein in, and just a few inches wide, I realized it was tight, heavy and too long, but decided to continue nonetheless. And for what seemed like months, I crocheted single row, upon single row – as we anxiously awaited the birth of our baby. (and no, in those days we didn’t know the sex of our baby in advance) And the blanket was heavy and large (4’x5’) when I finished. The winter was cold that year, and I wrapped my little baby boy in a big blanket of love to protect him from the wind and the world.
Many years and many years later, I twisted the hook and the yarn to create a pineapple designed blanket which never was used until I met myDarlin’ Robert Kenui Pope. And it lie on the back of the couch most days, until he would stretch out and pull it over himself as he watched the history channel or on many occasions ‘Casa Blanca’. I look over to the couch now, and the blanket lies over the back of the couch longing to give warmth and comfort.
And as we gathered myDarlin’s Aloha shirts and tie-dye shirts together for her to make quilts, we know that we will each have a physical reminder that we are covered in the warmth of his love for the remainder of our years. And we will tell tales of memories of myDarlin’ and each of those shirts to our children and our children’s children as we pass on the love and Aloha.
As I look back over our lives, I am grateful for the ever present blanket of love that God has wraps around us and that truly, love is all you need.
#KeepLookingUp #LoveisAllYouNeed
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