My mom received a message from her cousin Heather in Pennsylvania that there was a package on the way for my daughter. She didn’t tell us what it contained or what to expect. A week passed since receiving the message, the doorbell rang and the package was left outside. “Heather Butler”, was written on the package. I called my mom and told her it arrived. The package waited on the table until later that night. When I opened it a small letter fell out as I pulled out the teal, turquoise blanket. Unsure of exactly what it was I looked at my mom’s eyes swelled up with tears. She explained to me it was the blanket that had been sewn using her grandmother’s pattern. In the note, she wrote that the blanket had held 4 babies and a mother all from my family and it was now for us to wrap around me and my baby. Emotions overcame me as I realized that I now had this connection with my mother’s family that I hadn’t had before as they all lived so far, and I hadn’t been able to meet my great-grandmother but now I have a connection to her through something she had created with her own hands. As it sits upon her dresser awaiting her arrival--the 7th generation of women in our family. The sentimental value remains and will continue to remain as it continues through our family holding stories that can be shared anytime it is seen, of the children it held within its soft, warm knitting, that began with my great-grandmother. “You will always be stronger than what you thought”,-Great Grandma.

– GA

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant