The Embroidery Lesson

When we learned that our beautiful Jessica was autistic, we knew we would never be grandparents  .  .  .  we were wrong.  My wonderful nephew, Josh, and his beautiful wife, Maura, gave me Grandma status with the arrival of their precious daughter, Eva, five years ago.  My generous sister-in-law Karen – Grandma #1 – was supportive of my Emeritus status, too.

Last weekend, Eva and Josh and Maura came for a visit.  What a treat.  We are approaching the first anniversary of saying goodbye to our Jessica and as the day comes closer, I find myself fighting hard to stay out of the undertow.  Miss Eva and her mom and dad provided the perfect life vest – family love and joy.

Eva held Chuck, Jessie’s cuddly guinea pig.  She promised to take good care of one of Jessie’s stuffed animals we gave her to take home.  She made a lovely necklace and bracelet from my stash of beads, then she was ready for a new challenge. Jess, in spite of her handicaps, was amazingly good at embroidering beads to designs I drew for her.  I wanted to show Eva how to embroider, too.

With Maura’s nervous approval, I showed Eva the embroidery hoop with the fabric stretched on it, the outline of a heart rendered in Sharpie dots.  We discussed color choice – purple was the winner.  I threaded the needle, a standard large-eye embroidery; explained that it was very sharp, but, with careful attention, she would not poke herself; showed her how to see the needle from underneath the fabric by sliding it along until it found the dot; and she was off to the races!

Eva did beautifully, not a drop of blood drawn, perfect back stitch outlines, and five (5!) pieces finished.  Eva was so proud. Maura was so proud.  I was touched. It brought back vividly the memories of all the times I threaded needles and dotted designs for my beautiful Jessica.

I am a good grandma.  I was a good mom.  I am a lucky woman.