There is a unique art exhibit
currently showing at the Arts Council (311 South Main Street) in Harrisonburg,
VA. It is called “Strokes of Distinction” and spotlights the experience of
having had a stroke. My piece is called “Hard.” Here’s the story:
Dorothy was a young mother when she
learned to quilt, which she did for the next 50 years. I met her when she was
77 and lived in the assisted living facility into which I moved my father.
Whenever I visited Dad, I found Dorothy in one of the day rooms or on the patio
with an oval quilt frame on her lap. She cheerfully stitched quilt after quilt
as she chatted with anyone around.
Dorothy missed the big birthday party
we had for my father when he turned 90. She had suffered a stroke and was in the
hospital. When I returned to the assisted living several months later her gross
coordination was good but her vocabulary was stripped to basics and her
sentences truncated. Everything, she now said, was “Hard. Hard.”
The most striking consequence of
Dorothy’s stroke was that she could no longer quilt. She could hold the frame
but the stitches did not come. She sat with a half-completed quilt on her lap
and whispered, “Hard.” Dorothy’s brain had forgotten how to work it through the
layers of fabric and batting.
For me, Dorothy exemplified the old
adage “When life gives you scraps, make quilts.” You can see from the photos
how stoneware “quilt squares” make the make the quilt “hard.” I encourage
everyone to visit the exhibit. From August 5th until Sept. 1st,
it will be relocated to Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), Park
Gables art gallery space.
