Life goes on...

Hello friends...thank you for all of your incredible messages of peace and comfort that you have posted on my site for the last three weeks.  This has definitely been the saddest time of my life.  I find that I simply don't have the words to describe the profound sadness.  My father was my best friend and I was extremely close to my stepmother, my Mom (she has been a loving "mom" since 1973.)  Since my mother passed away two years ago, now I am, like many of you, without parents.  Time to finally grow up, I guess.

I have spent the past three weeks in their house, alone and not alone, as family came and went in waves.  I have been surrounded by their works of carpentry, woodwork, stained glass, and my quilts, hanging on their walls and draped over their furniture.

I did not take any pictures while down there, but I found a few in my computer files that were taken some time ago.  This is the quilt I made for their 25th anniversary, over 15 years ago.  It hangs on the wall near their dining table, even though I have wanted them to move it for many years due to the sun shining on it and fading it.

I designed a quilt for a block-of-the-month a few years ago, "Quilting Through America."  My Dad particularly liked it, so I gave it to him.  He hung it on a wall in a hall that would get no sun so that it would not start fading as the 25th anniversary quilt had done.  They both liked walking by it to get to their home offices every day.

In addition to being doctors, they were very creative.  My stepmother designed and made some of the most beautiful stained glass windows.  The square ones are 28" square.  The rectangular one is 16" X 30."

She loved birds and all growing things...I've always said she fed every bird and hummingbird in N. Alabama...

My dad was an incredible carpenter and woodworker, and together they built their home.  I would sit and look at every log, every board, every piece of trim, every floor board, every piece of homemade furniture and just feel awe struck.

My parents had wishes not to have a funeral or memorial service and wanted their bodies donated to medical education.  Just the family gathered on "the point" on the Tuesday afternoon, overlooking miles and miles of the county, and just hung out listening to the birds and the wind through the trees.  It was their favorite place on the property and will ultimately be where their ashes reside.

A lot of my future is up in the air right now, but I will continue to blog and post...quilting is still my "fabric therapy," and I will need it now more than ever.  My parents were very supportive of me trying to figure out how to make a living out of my quilt passion.  I am still committed to my fledgling pattern business and getting on with all my plans for future quilts!

If interested, you can visit their memorial page:

http://lemoneandleeyieldingmemorial.blogspot.com/


Teresa    :o)

sad post...

I will be quiet for a little while...I lost my dad and mom in a car accident yesterday evening.  Please keep me, my family, and extended family in your prayers.  They were extraordinary people, parents, grandparents, brother, sister, doctors, preservers of natural places, and lovers of life.  

Teresa