The pink and green crocheted doily was made by my grandmother, Maggie Efird Reese. (My father’s mother.) I don’t know when she made it, and it is just one example of her beautiful crocheted work. Several years ago, I had it placed in glass to preserve and display it.
The quilt was made by my maternal grandmother, Burma Kelley Retherford. It was made about 1926, just after she and my grandfather married. She gave it to me after I married in 1981. It wasn’t a wedding gift, just something she wanted me to have. It’s a variation on the Sunbonnet Sue pattern.
The butterfly was embroidered by my mother, Lola Jean Retherford Reese. She embroidered it on a shirt she’d made for me when I was in 7th grade, in 1972 or thereabouts. She made most of my clothing back then, and continued to make clothes for me until cancer made her give up sewing.
These three items are things that are of great value to me, that I didn’t buy and weren’t gifted to me for a particular occasion. They are irreplaceable. Each woman–my foremothers–gave of her time and skill and creativity to make these things, using whatever resources they had on hand, and their own hands. I have pictures and videos of these women, and recipes. I remember stories and sometimes, I hear echoes of their voices in my own speech and thoughts. In these mementos, I have a thing of beauty from their hands, a part of each of them.
Janet Reese Kaderli is a wife, writer and musician.