Thursday, October 18, 2007

Priceless

Hi Knitters,
This afternoon I took my daughters out of school to come along with me to the St. Mary's Care Center for a knitting hour with the residents. This is a living facility for older people who need medical attention. What a wonderful place to be. The staff was warm, happy and friendly and so welcoming. My daughters had a ball with the residents, just as much fun as I had.

The picture above is my daughter is working on a blanket for a church knitting group. This is the church across the street from our house where she tagged along with a friend to their Saturday knitting group. They make squares and sew them into blankets to give to people in need. She brought her square along to knit on today.
We arrived at the care center at 1:00 and the ladies had bingo at 2:00! There was no messing around with that schedule. I love that! After our visit as I was packing up my stuff my daughters walked down the hall with the group to the bingo room to check things out. When I was ready to leave I walked to the room to pick up my girls and there was my 11 year-old daughter smack-dab in the middle of the group quietly playing a round of bingo! I had to wait for her to finish the game before we could leave. Could you ever love anything more than that?
The girls are already begging me to go back for a visit and I am right with them. I am definitely going to go back and knit with them at their knitting group sometime soon. Every once in awhile you bet we will show up and knit with them.
Aren't they great? I brought a couple of books to donate to the knitting group. The woman in the purple sweater, Adele, was particularly happy about that. She wouldn't give that book up for more than a minute and then she wanted it right back. That is so cute! Hardly anyone got to look at the book. I think I may need to send over a few more copies. We chatted, I demonstrated a few quick things, my girls visited and took pictures for me.
Adele made sure I signed the book for the group. My daughter handed out samples for the ladies to hold.
This cute woman was so funny, I forgot her name. She was there with her mother. She looped the big carrots on her ring finger and kept telling everyone that she only had a "five carrot ring." I told her I was going to steal her line and look I already did!
I saved the best for last. This beautiful, smart 102 year-old woman (I had heard she was 101) immediately jumped in and started teaching my daughter how to purl. I will never forget this moment. To see my daughters both enjoy the company of this fascinating, on the ball woman touched my heart in so many ways. The girls enjoyed all of the residents. I loved the way they just jumped in with no fear or reservations. It is incredible to see the openness and accepting ways of children. This was a good day for me.
Her name is Sally and boy is she a treat. Here she is helping my youngest with her purl stitch.
That was her thing, teaching the purl stitch. She enjoyed the hour and everyone enjoyed her.
This is too good for words.
Priceless.
best, susie