Crocheting a Baby Blanket

Added Saturday comment: I have not decided to post in rainbow colors all the time. The colors are in honor of the multicolored baby blanket in the making.
__________________________________________

No, not me. I do not crochet.

I am happy to say that I am improving significantly. I will go to the chiropractor again on Friday morning, and I have a Rx from my MD, so I should be okay for now. Whew.

On Monday morning we will be flying out to California for a short visit. California is my (and my husband's) home state, but we have not lived there for about 30 years. The last time I was there was when my father was dying. That was 15 years ago. Even though California has not been "home" for a long time, I still love it. I do not miss Hollywood, the traffic, the smog or the stucco houses, but I miss Sequoia National Park, the ocean, the mountains, the desert, the sun, and the food.

We have to take care of some business, and we need to check on Ken's brother-- the only relative still there.

I may share more about that later.

My sister with Alzheimers and her husband and daughter-in-law are in California too, at a time share. So we will intersect with them for a few days before we tackle what may be some difficult things. Then....whizz...back to Wisconsin. It seems I am always zipping about and never able to savor much. I wish I had time to make a trip to Yosemite, to visit Disneyland again, to look up old friends, to visit old haunts, to meet a RevGal. Those things won't happen, but I am taking my swim suit. Californians will think we are crazy, but we will be jumping into the Pacific.

You are wondering when I'm going to get around to the baby blanket?

My mother has not improved. Some days she knows that a baby is coming in January, that she only has one sibling living, that she resides in Wisconsin. Other days she does not remember any of these things. Today was one of those days. She does not remember where to find the cat food or the cereal, or her lipstick. She does not remember where she goes to church.

However, things are going well with Laurie, the woman who is staying with her. When my mother does recall that a great-grandchild is on the way, she mentions making a baby blanket. Frankly, I thought there was no way Mom would be able to crochet anything.

I was mistaken.

Last week she was reintroduced to Wally.


Wally is recovering from a stroke, was in the nursing home when my mother was, and goes to therapy at the same place. He is, says Mary the therapist, "the crochet king." How about that?

Yesterday Mom and Laurie went to Wal-Mart for multicolored "baby" yarn. Today they had a crochet lesson with Wally. Above you see she is dillegently working on a blanket. Laurie reports she is leaving her "in the dust." She is crocheting like she does it every day.

I have no memory of my mother crocheting anything, ever.

Except there are two tiny baby dresses tucked away somewhere that I know she crocheted for each of my two sisters when they were newborns. By the time I was born, the crochet hooks were put in a box in the closet, along with much of the other tools and trappings of normal life.

This crocheting is a wonderful thing. It will give her something to help her remember that a baby is coming. It will give her somthing to do. It will help her injured hand be regularly exercised. And it will give her a friend. Wally too. She is happy. She crocheted all afternoon and into the evening. That is, until the cat decided to chew the string of yarn in two.

Silly cat!

Thank you, God, for crochet hooks, and for yarn and for Wally the Crochet King, and for an intact memory from long ago. May each stich be a blessing, and a memory, and a prayer.