My Grandma's Hands

I, of course, waited until the last minute to make my sister's gifts. Two pillows. One made from the shirt my aunt bought for her in Italy and the other, my dad's little league shirt from wayyyyy back in the day. So, I went downstairs to use my grandmother's sewing machine to get them finished...and get them finished fast since it was already 11 pm. The sewing machine lasted all of 5 minutes. I hate bobbins. I hate them with a passion. So, Grandma said "Let's just sew them by hand. It seems simple enough" And that's exactly what we did. My grandma turned 71 yesterday. She amazes me. I had to thread the needle for her because of her arthritic fingers, but each stitch she made was perfect and beautiful in my eyes. There was love in every one of them. There was something very bittersweet in her voice as she sewed her son's little league shirt. She was telling stories about how great of a ball player he was. How cute all of his team was, staring off into the sky watching the birds fly around, my dad being the only focused one. :) I couldn't help but smile because I knew that as she was telling me those things that the mental pictures were running through her head of my dad as a small child. It was so special to me to spend this little bit of time with my grandma, watching her 71 year old, arthritic fingers sew each stitch. Her body, running down as time goes by, but she's so full of life. Of spunk and wit and humor. I love her to pieces, I don't know what I'd do without her.