May 2007 - Volume 11, Issue 10

A Quilt of Mother's Love

By Yolanda Cohen

Photo of a quiltWhen I was a little child
While sitting on the floor
I watched my mother cut and snip
From old clothes that I wore

The years passed on and I was grown
She started to stitch and sew
'A Quilt', she said, 'it's gonna' be,
I thought you'd like to know'

Things didn't seem so good just then
My life was falling apart
But she stitched and stitched and talked to me
with wisdom from her heart

'Life's like that bag of quilting scraps,'
and she continued to sew
'They all just seem to fit right in,
when you know just where to go'

Then I saw the colors blending
Making patterns once again
With patience working them in place
With gentle loving hands

Like the Quilt so soft and cozy
Pieces from my broken past
When she put them all together
made something beautiful at last

Not one piece of fabric missing
Nothing thrown aside as waste
She put them all in order
Each one into its own place

There were pieces not so pretty
in the quilt they inner twined
with the good, the bad, the lovely
together made a perfect line.

Oh that Quilt told such a story
that covered many, many years
and in between the stitches
I heard prayers and I saw tears

My whole life in bits and pieces
All now shown in a different hue
in the Quilt that Mother made, and said,
'With love, was made for you'

Reprinted with permission of Yolanda Cohen