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PRECIOUS MEMORIES – Around The Frame

Appleseed Quilter’s touch quilts are given to people with Alzheimer’s to aid in their therapy.Thanksgiving is a special holiday: It is not a religious observance, no one is mandated to observe it, but it is the one day out of the year people take and reflect on the many blessings they received over the past year and express their gratitude for them.

Airports are overcrowded as people take whatever means necessary to be home to share this traditional holiday with their families. Family time is great memory –making time as traditions are passed down from one generation to the next.

My friend Ann recalls her mom putting the rolls in the oven before sitting down to pray and then forgetting all about them until the smell of black smoke wafts through the air and with a cry of “I forgot the rolls!” she leaps up and scurries to the kitchen to remove the blacken bits of bread from the oven and promptly deposits them into the trash.

Not a Thanksgiving goes by that we don’t rib our youngest brother on his “pilgrim citing” at downtown Murphy’s when as a young kid he mistook an Amish Family for the pilgrims he studied at Hillcrest School.

Happy, sad, poignant, wonderful, our memories are so much a part of what makes us who we are. That is why it is so fitting that the month of November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month To slowly be robbed of one’s memory to the point where even their dearest relative is unrecognizable is difficult to fathom. How heartbreaking for family members to helplessly watch someone slowly slip away from them.

While scientists conduct research for the causes and cures for Alzheimer’s Disease, the Greater Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association raises funds, educates and offers support group opportunities. Access their Fort Wayne page at: bit.ly/1117aID

Last winter I reported how the Appleseed Quilters Guild created touch quilts to help soothe people with Alzheimer’s. A display of their touch quilts hangs in the window of Born Again Quilts, 4005 South Wayne Avenue. The various fabric textures, pieces of ribbons and lace, buttons and bows: all designed to quiet restless hands. Many of these quilts are donated to nursing homes where they are used as therapy. If you know a person residing at home who might benefit from a touch quilt, the Appleseed Quilters philanthropy committee would make them one. Contact them at: appleseedquilters.com

As Thanksgiving Day approaches resolve to make happy funny memories with your parents, grandparents, siblings, children and grandchildren and when you count your blessings give thanks too for the precious gift of memory.
Wishing all my dear readers a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Lois Levihn is the owner of Born Again Quilts located at 4005 South Wayne Ave. She can be contacted at 260-515-9446 or bornagainquilts@frontier.com. Visit online at bornagainquilts.etsy.com.

The Waynedale News Staff
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