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Mary is an elderly woman nearing the end of her days. Her arthritic, gnarled hands have a beauty all their own. They represent so many skills, so many memories, so many stories. Everyone who knows Mary says she’s beautiful—because she has always been there to listen and comfort and encourage those who are in pain and those who have lost their way.
One day Mary wakes up feeling like there’s something left undone. Something she has to do before she dies. After she ponders it awhile, she feels God is telling her to make a quilt. Her children think she’s out of her mind for even suggesting it. One son goes ahead and helps Mary get the frame set up, but he is not sure why his mother is even considering it. The other son is more vocal in his objections and he’s ready to sell Mary’s home and put her in a nursing home.
When the sons’ wives hear of Mary’s plans, they want to help. Soon the whole community turns out. But this quilt is unlike anything anyone has ever made before. This is a prayer quilt, every stitch has to be made with a prayer of thanks. Thanks for the good times. Thanks for the bad times. Thanks for those they loved, and thanks for those they never had the chance to love. But before the quilt is finished, Mary takes sick. Will she live to see the finished product?
THE QUILT is a heart-wrenching story. I cried as Mary brought out all the heirloom clothing she’d saved over the years to cut up for this quilt. Her wedding dress. Baby gowns, the kind that are small to fit the baby on top and fall in a long skirt below, like what you see in antique pictures of your grandparents or great-grandparents. Yet THE QUILT contains a valuable lesson we all need to remember. In everything give thanks . . . . After I finished reading the book I went to bed thanking God for everyone and everything He brought to mind.
Pick up a copy of THE QUILT today. It’s attractively published, with a built-in bookmark. It can be kept for yourself or given as a gift for some special person in your life.
Reviewed by Laura V. Hilton
for The Road to Romance
June 21, 2004
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