Grandpa Shirts

My grandpa died in 2009.  It was sudden and it was hard on the entire family.  I wrote about it at the time, so I won't eulogize here.  

Right after he died, one of my aunts took all of my grandpa's shirts to have someone make a quilt out of them.  Bags and bags of western style shirts, plaid with "mother of pearl" snaps.  

As the quilter in the family, I suppose I'm glad that she didn't ask me to make it for her.  But on the other hand, I feel a little a little salty about the fact that she took all the shirts to make herself a quilt, and none of us ever saw that quilt, nor did she give the scraps to anyone to make a quilt for themselves (grandpa had 6 kids, and 14 grandkids).  

A few years went by and when my grandma was planning to sell her house, she found a bag of my grandpa's shirts.  These shirts were old, well loved, threadbare in places (especially at the belt line from so many times tucking into jeans).  

There weren't many shirts and not all of them were even usable, but I felt so happy to have them.  I asked my mom if she wanted a quilt or a wall hanging and she asked for a wall hanging.  With the rest, I wanted to make a quilt for my cousin who, for him, our grandpa was more of a dad than his real dad.

He didn't know this quilt was coming...I sent it to him in the mail out of the blue.  I can't remember what I said in the card other than the memory of hugging my grandpa and feeling the cold, smooth snaps of his shirts pressing against my cheek.

I think about this quilt sometimes.  I think of how my cousin sounded on the phone when he called to thank me.  He said he had forgotten about the snaps, but now remembers.  I think about how his mom said he stared at the quilt when he pulled it out of the box, stunned.  She told me he said that no one had ever given him a gift as thoughtful as this, that he couldn't believe I had made it for him.  I think about what it must feel like to receive a hug from your grandpa years after he's passed away.  To feel the snaps against your cheek one last time...