I’m amazed at how fast 24 hours go and that it is half past November already! Can it be? Is life blitzing by? It sure seems like it. Summers go by in a breeze, too, unlike when we were kids, and the summers lingered on and on. I kind of “long” for those days.
Moving on…the following is a story of a memorial/memory quilt I was lucky to create from a lady in Pennsylvania. I don’t recall how she found me, but probably a reference from someone in Maryland.
My client, whom I’ll call “Sandy,” came from PA with her sister and two bags full of T-shirts. The quilt was to be created in honor (I like honor instead of memory) of her brother, who lost his life in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Jim worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, an iconic global financial institution with world-class talent, and Jim was considered one of their best talents. To be clear, on September 11, 2001, 658 Cantor Fitzgerald (located in the North Tower) employees were killed, making it the organization with the most significant loss of life in the attacks.
According to Sandy, Jim was the only Clemson University graduate who died that horrific day. For her, it was a solemn distinction of his character, education, and life choices (good ones!).
I started working on Jim’s quilt in the early summer of 2018. I typically have several quilts in my queue at any given time and work in batches of two or three quilts at a time. By the time the quilts were done and ready for the longarming, it was September. I must have loaded Jim’s quilt onto my longarm on September 9 or 10. I didn’t get it quilted the day I loaded it, but when I did, I began using the FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) technique; though, for some uncanny reason, I stopped after a few minutes and paused to check the date on my watch.
Yep, it was 9/11. Hmmm…
An eerie feeling washed over me as I continued quilting that I could not purely articulate. Goosebumps followed. It was a woo-woo moment. Head down, I was in the zone and never stopped until I finished the relatively large quilt, with at least one T-shirt with Clemson on it. I was spent and breathless after finishing, which was odd to me. Could I have been channeling Jim, or was he channeling me in some unexplained mystery?
But that is not all with Jim’s quilt journey with me.
After Sandy and her sister returned to Maryland to pick up Jim’s quilt, they were delighted with it—phew!—a week or so later, Bill and I drove to a New Jersey wine-tasting event hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary’s dad started the Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, years ago, and Gary grew the company exponentially. We had a delightful time at the tasting event in West Orange and stayed overnight since it started in the evening.
The next very foggy morning, I suggested to Hubby Bill that we should take a run/walk before getting in the car and driving home for 3-4 hours. He was on board, so we packed up, checked out, and hit a local park not far from the hotel - Essex County - Eagle Rock. It was right on the river with the Manhattan skyline on the other side. However, due to all the fog, we couldn’t see one building! That’s pretty thick fog, don’t you think? Not one building stood out of all that fog! Sheesh!
Eagle Rock also has a September 11, 2001, Memorial “supposedly” overlooking Manhattan. It is a beautiful and peaceful place selected for its high elevation and the unobstructed view of the New York City Skyline, though not for us that early October day. The name of each victim lost on that horrific day is memorialized here on The Wall of Honor. I have also visited the 9-11 Memorial in NYC and will say that the Memorial here is just as moving, even if it is presented on a much smaller scale. On a clear day, sigh, you can see the symbolic Freedom Tower clearly in the distance - where the Twin Towers once stood.
As Bill and I walked up to the Memorial, I felt the same eerie feeling I had while longarming Jim’s quilt. Eerily and another woo-woo moment, a gossamer-like hand enveloped me as I walked to the exact place where Jim’s name was etched into the memorial. Remember, nearly 3,000 names are carved into the granite, and I was led to the one with Jim’s name. I’ve got chills running down my back as I reveal and type this story.
Before we left the 9/11 Memorial for our run, Bill and I stood silent for several minutes to pay our silent tributes to the victims and waited for me to gather myself from this coincidence. Was it? Or was I led there to Jim's" name?
I guess some things just can’t be explained in our world. Working on this quilt and visiting the NJ Memorial fits right up there with unexplained happenings. I was honored to create this treasured keepsake, a lasting memory of a life well lived until 9/11/2001. I will leave it at that. RIP, Jim!
bSoleille!
Terri
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