Contributed by Peggy

Four girls, a mom, and a dad living happily on a farm in a three-room house filled with love.  This is how a family establishes lasting memories that become part of a legacy.

When there is only one bedroom for a family of six, sharing becomes a way of life.  The living room served as a children’s bedroom at bedtime.  With a full size bed and a crib available, it was necessary for the oldest three girls to sleep crosswise in the bed and the baby to sleep in the crib at the foot of the bed.

Mom and dad were not ready to go to bed at the same time as the girls so the room pulled double duty.  This required us to go to sleep in the living room with the light on.  The bed had four posts so my mom would stretch her fabric across them and use it for a quilting frame.  She would stand on a short stool so she could reach the middle of her masterpiece.  Night after night I would fall asleep watching the needle make its way in and out of the fabric.  I tried to predict the pattern the stitches would form as my mom would patiently weave her magic in those designs.  This became a wonderful source of comfort for me as I shared this precious time with my whole family.

My mother never knew what she gave me through this activity.  She was just doing what she could to provide warmth to our bed by creating a quilt.  The warmth she really provided was the teaching I received from the love she gave to every stitch.  Even though this was only one stitch in time that the four of us received from Mom, it became an extremely valuable one.  I began to look for patterns throughout my life and was always drawn back to the wonderful memory of this stitch in time.