Quilt Story: Susan Berry
Susan Berry has a heartwarming story of the quilt that she made for her new grandson and the peace and joy it brought her as she fought with her husband through his cancer treatments. It brought tears to our eyes reading her story. As quilts are so much more than just fabric, we want to share as many of these heartwarming stories as we can. Here is Susan’s story:
“This Hawaiian Appliqué quilt was my grandson’s birth quilt, as he was born in Oahu, Hawaii. My daughter sent the pattern to me and we selected the color/fabric through FaceTime. While FaceTiming from the quilt store, she received an alert on her phone that they were to immediately take shelter due to a possibly incoming threat. It turned out to be that infamous false alarm made while testing their alert system.
Shortly after I started making the quilt, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. In the following months, this quilt was with me every night as my husband and I watched tv together, at every chemotherapy treatment, and when my husband was hospitalized. The slow hand appliqué and later the quilting was calming for me. I wasn’t able to read anything during that time period because my mind was always racing. The Hawaiians believe that whatever you are feeling when you are making a Hawaiian appliqué quilt is “caught” in the stitches. While I was frightened by my husband’s cancer, I always felt hopeful that the chemotherapy would get the cancer into remission.
During December my husband didn’t want to celebrate Christmas. He wasn’t able to walk very well, even with a walker. I think he thought it would be too much for me. I told him we absolutely were going to celebrate and so I decorated the house, brought home a tree and decorated it, and we celebrated. I think he also was feeling depressed that he couldn’t get out and shop for anyone. So when he gave me a present on Christmas Day, I was very surprised. Apparently a catalog had come to the house from a company I’d never heard of. From it he had ordered a pewter sea turtle necklace because he said after putting so many hours into making the quilt for my grandson, he wanted me to have something to remember it by. That necklace turned out to be the last present he ever gave me, as he began to rapidly decline in January. When he had what turned out to be his last chemo treatment ever, (which was supposed to just be his three week break), I stopped working on the quilt. My hopefulness had also declined and I didn’t want those feelings caught in the quilt. My husband passed away just three weeks shy of a year from his diagnosis in March, 2018. He was able to meet his new grandson just two days before entering the hospital for the last time.
I was finally able to resume quilting and finishing this birth quilt six months later. Working on the quilt brought hope back into my life. The slow quilting once again quieted my mind. It allowed me to put down my fears and grief and imagine a future again.
My daughter was very sad that her new son would never know his grandfather. It was then that I told her the story of the quilt and that when her son was old enough, she could share the story with him. His Birth Quilt was stitched with hope and love for him and for his grandfather.