I was sitting on the couch beside my dogs last night. It was a rare event that Millie (the brown one) wanted to sit on the couch with me. Our evening routine is that Ethan is with me on the couch and Millie is with Josh on the loveseat, which sits perpendicular to the couch. Last night though, Millie wanted to be close to me because I guess my freshly tattooed arm in it’s saniderm wrapping smelled good to her because she kept trying to lick it.
As I took this picture of my two puppies curled up together, the blue and white blanket caught my eye.
And I realized, I don’t think I ever told the story about that blanket. On the surface, it’s just a crocheted blanket. It was made for me by a lady from the church I used to go to that was connected to my school. Her name was Sue Ellen.
Sue Ellen loved crocheting blankets for people. And while she worked on a blanket for a person, she prayed for them. So it’s like a prayer shawl, but a prayer blanket. Several years ago, Sue Ellen made me one and I was over the moon touched by it. As a knitter/crocheter myself, I’m always the one making things for other people. It was super special to have someone make something for me. And to have her pray for me as she made it was nice too.
Some back story on Sue Ellen is that she and her husband Ed were long-time parishioners of our church. She was in several of the organizations and Ed was a leader in the Knights of Columbus. Very involved in the mission of the church and the school for that matter. They were the nicest people. And obviously very in love. They had kids and grandkids. He had been in the army and they both worked in the medical field. She was a nurse, and he worked with medicine. I don’t know exactly what he did in the army, but I know afterwards, he worked as a pharmacist and eventually taught college classes in that field.
But then, a few years ago, something happened and Sue Ellen got very sick. I don’t recall the details of what exactly happened, but I know whatever it was, it happened fast and very unexpectedly. It made her death that much more shocking. Just like that, she was gone. And Ed was devastated. Sue Ellen was the love of his life. This was about three or four years ago and while I know grief is going to take as long as it takes and is going to look different for everybody, Ed is just not the same.
When I was a principal, Ed came by to visit every couple of weeks. He’d be there for some random Knights of Columbus business related to the school that really only took five minutes. But he’d sit in my office and we’d chat for about an hour. I never minded talking to him. I actually enjoyed the chats. I understood that he probably needed them somehow. His best friend and the love of his life was gone. He didn’t want to be alone. All of that was obvious with just a quick look into his eyes. The sadness and heaviness lingered there, no matter how much he tried to smile and make jokes.
Back to Sue Ellen’s blankets. So deep was her passion for making blankets for people in the parish, when her funeral was held, everybody who had received a blanket from her brought it and draped it over the back of the pew where they sat in the sanctuary. I wasn’t there to see it and add my own blanket to the display, I was teaching at the time, but I can just imagine the sight.
A few months after the funeral, Ed approached me. He explained to me that he had begun cleaning out Sue Ellen’s things and came across her yarn collection. Anyone as passionate about knitting/crocheting has a yarn stash. We never buy yarn only when we need it. We buy it because it’s pretty, or soft, or was on sale…all with the intent to use it in a future project. Sue Ellen would never get to those future projects. Leaving Ed to wonder what to do with the yarn.
Ed knew that I knit and crocheted. I don’t exactly know how he knew, maybe he had seen things I had made for other people in the parish and the school. However it is that he knew, he knew. And when he approached me that day, he asked me if I would take all of Sue Ellen’s yarn from him. I told him it would be my honor. And it was.
Not long after that, he brought me two trash bags full of her yarn. Granted, none of the yarn she had was yarn that I would choose for myself, but I took that yarn and organized it in a bin that would keep it safe and away from pet hair and any other dust or dander.
I only use the yarn for really special projects. One time I incorporated it into something I made for a coworker as an end of the year “secret angel” gift. It was like a year long secret Santa thing we did every year. She was someone who knew Sue Ellen well and would appreciate knowing her yarn was used in it. I’ve also used it in a project for an online knitting friend whose wife was going through chemotherapy. I made a little stuffed rabbit for each of them and used some of Sue Ellen’s yarn in one of the parts of the rabbit.
My own blanket from Sue Ellen laid on the back of our couch for a while. I used it as a nap blanket, but found that it was a little small for covering up completely, so I didn’t use it much. But then Millie and Ethan discovered the blanket and it has now become theirs. At first I was really upset by this. Especially once Millie’s need to rearrange the blanket with her paws to get it just right for sleeping on caused holes to form in it. I used some of Sue Ellen’s yarn to repair the holes.
But as much as I didn’t like that my dogs are madly in love with this blanket, I’m actually not upset about it now. Sue Ellen made that blanket with love in her heart. She wanted me to use it and know that I was thought of and prayed for. I think she would be just fine knowing my dogs love her blanket. My dogs are indeed thought of and prayed for, by me every day. Regardless of its intended purpose, it was made with love and it is being used with love, just as Sue Ellen intended.
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