God gifts

I'm going to continue my gifts list with the thought I ended on yesterday...  

'things' that remind me of people in my life I am thankful for and the heritage they passed on to me.

My grandmother gave me this quilt on my 25th anniversary.  

It had a note attached to it that said her mother had given it to her on her 25th anniversary along with the date of that anniversary.  

I stared at the note for a few minutes before it sank in exactly what it said.  

The date of my grandparents 25th anniversary was the DAY my husband was born.  

Wow.  Weird. 

But to me, this quilt represents generations of marriages, strong and loving that have passed before in my family, my parents, grandparents and great grandparents.  

An unusual and precious thing in this day and time. 

It's just an old wooden box.  

Actually it's a tool box.

It belonged to my great grandfather, 

Marion Francis, 

who lived off and on with us over the years as I was growing up.  

As a kid I just thought of him as an old man.  

Now I wish I could go back and have a good long conversation with him and ask him all the

 'what was it like?' questions.  

My memories are of him sitting in his old leather lazy boy reading from his warn Bible.  

I remember how he used to pronounce Isaiah "Isaiher".  

Miss him.

I named my daughter after him, Lydia Francis.

My dad had given me Grandpa's old tool box many years ago and I passed it to his namesake.  

She uses it to hold fat quarters for quilting.  

I think he would like that.

Quilting runs in my husband's family.  

The reason Lydia has boxes of fat quarters is because her Granny began teaching her to quilt when she was about nine years old.  

Today she is an amazing quilter. 

Her Granny, my mother in law, is a master quilter.  

I don't think she makes a quilt that doesn't win a blue ribbon.  

But this is not a blue ribbon quilt.  

It's a well loved quilt. 

 It was made by my husband's Granny, his mother's mother.  

The lady who started the quilting dynasty.  

(Well, I'm not sure that's true, it might go farther back than my knowledge.)

  

But the important thing here is, this is a loved quilt.  

Granny made it for my husband when he was a little boy.  

It has been well loved.  

I have to hide it from him when he isn't feeling well 

or he'll pull it out of it's special storage spot and use it.  

Which of course is just sweet. 

Granny was a wonderful person.  

She raised eleven children.  

Gave birth to twelve and lost one as a child.  

Her family are some of my favorite people in the world.  

Just good folks.  

She passed on a heritage that is rarely seen today.  

And I am so blessed and thankful that it continues through my children.  

Today, I am thankful for a full, strong and inspiring heritage.