The sound of thread being pulled through cloth whispers like a barely breathed prayer.
Through the years, Sara R and her sister winglion (Ann) have made thousands of prayers manifest. Our thoughts and caring have been transmuted by their loving hands into eloquent quilts that comfort and heal.
In 2011, some of the quilts that Sara and Ann had created were portrayed as a "virtual quilt" in the image below by our own much loved and missed - ulookarmless. In the midst of his own health struggles, ulookarmless wanted to make sure that Sara and Ann knew how much their quilts meant to all who received them.
Their healing hands have never stopped. Sara and Ann, with a little help from the rest of us, have made magic happen again and again, even in the darkest of times. As smileycreek eloquently said -
A scary diagnosis, a serious injury, a death in the family, caretaking a parent with Alzheimer's, living with cancer....all of it can feel lonely and isolating. In this online world of Daily Kos, though, we have genuine Healers named Sara R and winglion who fill that breach with something extraordinary: A Community Quilt.
smileycreek and ulookarmless were far from the only ones to think so. Their diaries here on Dkos were filled with deeply moving testimonies from Kossacks who had received Sara's and Ann's quilts.
You said my quilt was to get me back in my bed. Well, it has done that. I still cry when I read the messages, since it is hard to believe people think such lovely things about me. That's the tears part. The laughter part is from the fabrics - some are smiles, and some even make me laugh. The screen saver on my phone is my dog on my quilt on my bed. Many, many thanks. ramara
It was unforgettable. First came the quilt diary and all the loving expressions of support from fellow Kossacks and then the arrival of Sara and Ann's quilt. Both lifted me up at THE lowest possible point in my life. Thank you Sara, Ann, and my dear, dear Daily Kos friends. Larry Bailey
I lived so much of my life aware of the notion - we live alone. When in a coma, I experienced time - and a greatly magnified sense not only of separation but of rejection, of inefficacy, of being undeserving of good company.
I did not wake up to the quilt; it came later. After teary eyes from leaned-over loved ones, held hands and my own astonishment that I had been out of it for quite some time.... doubly so for it being nothing so long as it felt when under sedation. For it felt like years, not weeks.
So, a few days later, as I am slowly clawing my way up to full consciousness, it arrives - this quilt, stitched together - I gather in quite a hurry - with a host of messages on it from a very large sampling of the Kossacks I knew. More would send messages in other ways - emails, texts, phone calls - a group sent some flowers.
Over a year later I am back to thinking - we live alone. I have lost friends to death and to the death of affection since then. It was the same before but mourning comes more quickly and I fear I am easier with it now. I look at my hands and let them fall back on a quilt. And I squeeze the fabric tightly and wonder - did I come back wrong somehow? Or changed, in some way that no longer fits into the world?
No, I just feel the joy and pain - all of it - more acutely. For I am aware that both can be taken suddenly, like breath before a dive under deep still water - and just as suddenly sweet delicious life can return. But one day the deep will claim us.
Before then, take hold of the quilt of your friends. Don't disparage a single square. Don't find reason to think - oh, this one I can dismiss. It's not pretty or clever or useful enough.
Do this at your peril. For a quilt is a social thing - just like your life.
You cannot lose just one patch of it, without risking all.
I had to go through this in silence and solitude. This course runs even now.
But for a while, I surfaced from an abyss - and your hands were there to raise me back into the living. I don't plan on making such a need happen twice - the ride's not worth the ticket - but it meant the world to feel not just alive and human but part of a larger world.
And to be able to weep tears of gratitude that the world welcomed me back. cskendrick
Winglion Quilts, Sara's and Ann's website, is replete with deeply felt testimonials, including from our own BeninSC.
...In my words ... you will never find an initiative within the Daily Kos community which helps its members as the Community Quilt Project does. Sara and Ann have no hope of becoming wealthy with this project, it is more a labor of love. Still, it is hard work and significant expense is involved. If you can make a contribution to support these pillars of our community, PLEASE do so! It is very important, and you will never find anyone on this site more deserving of your support than them...
...I want to say a few words about the quilt to those who have never experienced such a thing. I have thought about this for some time, and the first thing I thought of was Frosty the Snowman! You see, there must have been ... some magic in ... that old silk hat they found ... For when they placed it on his head ... he began to dance around. (Frosty the Snowman lyrics from here.)
I understand it all too well because I believe without reservation that a quilt like the one I received can be a receptacle for pure magic, channeled by the loving and very focused intent of special human beings. The right experts, such as Sara and Ann, have the ability to incorporate that magic in fabric form, to be conveyed to yet another, very blessed human being. For I assure you, when my quilt arrived on my doorstep, and I unpacked it, like our friend, Frosty, I did indeed begin to dance around!...
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