Family and Flight Delays

We got a call from our daughter yesterday afternoon. She was safely in San Francisco – Yay! But her flight to Dulles was canceled – Boo! Instead of arriving super late she opted to take a flight out this morning. Spending the evening with new friends in San Francisco, a city she has never seen may have played a part in her decision! I totally understand – even if it means we will have less time with her. She leaves later this week to go back to school in Georgia.

We missed her at our family gathering yesterday afternoon. We celebrated my step dad’s birthday. Having the family together reminded me of this lap quilt we made last year for my step sister who was having some health challenges. Blocks were signed in California, Minnesota, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia. We are a big family- brought together back in 1976. My mother was a widow with 4 children and the man she married was a widower with 5. Not an easy feat, especially since most of us were teenagers at the time, but they made it seem so. We probably get along as well as or better than most “regular” families. Even though they are in their 80’s we still gather at their house for holidays and when those who have moved away are back east for a visit. The step designation almost seems inappropriate now.

I added this sentiment to two of the blocks –

 

How much like a patchwork quilt we are;

Some of us are bright and gay,

Some are quieter, more delicate and subdued.

Yet how well we blend together,

The quieter ones set off the colorful

The brighter ones accentuate the pastels.

Often the more fragile pieces

Hold the sturdy ones together;

Blessed are we to be varied.

 

All of us are stitched with love and tied to one another.

-Author Unknown

I would venture to guess that Anon,

who wrote so many poems without signing them,

was often a woman.

– Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

I Googled “Anonymous was a woman” to see who to attribute it to and found this interesting article in the Yale Alumni Magazine titled Your Favorite Famous Quotations: Was it by Voltaire? Yogi Berra? Or Some Woman You’ve Never Heard Of?

My pink plaid chair – 

I love it because it is small – it doesn’t take up much room and when I sit in it I can lean back and my feet still touch the ground!