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Papi’s Comfort Blankets
Papi’s Comfort Blankets
My husband and I had been married for 37 years when he passed away. We had four children; 3 daughters and one son, and at the time of his death we also had three son in laws, one daughter in law and 13 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Needless to say our life was filled with love, fun, laughter, outings and many stayovers at G’ma’s and G’pa’s house.
My husband died 16 days after his 60th birthday. When he was in his forties he was diagnosed with diabetes. Along with that came complications from Hepatitis C from his younger, rebel rousing days. Well the next 20 years took its toll on his health. At the time of his demise he was working with a non profit organization as a State Certified Lead Inspector; abating lead in homes of low income families. He was at a conference in the Los Angeles area when he called me and stated that he just didn’t feel good. He was not even able to attend any of the sessions. When he got home two days later, his face was drawn and his color was pale. I took him to see his personal doctor the next day; he was hospitalized and he lasted only a week. Well needless to say this was a shock to all of us because we never expected this. He was just “not feeling well.” Come to find out he had gotten an infection and had a very low immune system and therefore could not fight the infection and succumbed to the illness.
My husband was the 7th child of 12 children. He came from a very loving and endearing family. They were all there to support me and our four children. And even with all their support I felt so alone and it’s as if someone had taken my heart and broke it in half. The next few days were a blurr. I remember thinking it was all a dream, not wanting to eat, much less be social and talk to people. But our children kept me focused and sane.
About a year later I felt it was time and I thought I was ready to try to clean up some of his belongings. I would begin very bravely and then I would just throw myself on the bed and begin to cry; hanging on to one of his shirts or cap or whatever it was that was his and smelled like him. To this day I still have a bottle of his favorite Avon cologne in one of my drawers. So I finally got enough nerve to start putting his clothes into plastic storage containers. Now why I was putting them in plastic storage containers I don’t know; and what I was going to do with them I don’t know. I know I couldn’t throw them away and I wasn’t ready to give them to The Goodwill. He had a closet full of dress shirts, slacks and sports coats.
I discussed this with my daughters and asked them what we should do with their Papi’s clothing. It was our oldest daughter, Alicia the seamstress in the family, that came up with the idea of making “comfort blankets” from his clothing. So one Saturday we got together, our three daughters, daughter in law, and the five oldest granddaughters and cut 12 x 12 square patterns of all his colorful shirts. We cut patterns that included cuffs from sleeves, from side seams, from shirt pockets and even patterns that included the buttons from the front of the shirt. They were beautiful.
From his dress slacks and jeans and khakis, we cut patterns in longer strips and edged our oldest grandson’s blankets with that material. We lined all the “comfort blankets” with a light denim material. We didn’t putting batting into the blankets ‘cause they were not meant for warmth, but for comfort.
For Christmas of 2006, our oldest daughter, Alicia, presented us with completed “comfort blankets”. On each blanket that she finished off for us she personalized it with an embroidered endearment. My blanket had two hearts intertwined in one corner. Anthony’s blanket, our son, had his dad’s initials and mine in one corner. On Angela’s blanket, our second daughter, she embroidered the words LOVE in one corner and on Andrea’s blanket she embroidered Baby Cakes (that was her Dad’s nickname for her since she was our youngest child.) For the two oldest grandson’s she embroidered their initials along with their grandpa’s. Our oldest granddaughter, Celeste, whom had just become a Mommy also received one with Love embroidered in one corner. And our oldest daughter, Alicia, had two heart with Mom & Dad embroidered.
Needless to say, we were all in awe. Our grandson, Albert, who was named after him, went outside and I found him crying. I hugged him and told him that Grandpa would always be in his heart. He told me he was crying because he didn’t really have anything tangible that belonged to his Grandpa except the “Cold Stone” necklace that he had bought him and our other grandson when he had taken them to a wrestling match in Fresno, CA (which is about 50 miles away). He bought three, one for each one of them. He would occasionally call them and ask them if they were wearing their necklace. He wore his until his neck started turning green.
With his clothes we were able to make 8 “comfort blankets”. We can look at our blankets and remember him wearing each one of his shirts and pants and the laughter, silliness and happiness that he brought into our lives. Or we’ll remember an event when he wore a specific shirt and it all brings a smile to our faces and lights up our hearts.
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