Turning the Page

Today I put together two pages of quotations, images and poetry that will become part of a scrapbook to honour a woman's retirement. As I worked, I was reminded of my father and the quilts that I made for my brother, my mother and myself from his shirts after his death. They are heirlooms, born of love as I worked through my grief.

Somehow, the skills that work for me in quilting disappeared when it came to these two pages. Colours and shapes, words and images, wriggled and resisted my desire to encapsulate the six years I have worked with her.

These have been extraordinary years of personal growth...much of which has been due to her direction or to the opportunities and challenges she lay before me. Her retirement coincides with the ending of the role I have held in my professional life. I wanted to make certain that what I was creating was a tribute to her--not simply an expression of closure for me.

As I worked, I realized that the two were, necessarily, the same.