Letter to Lindsay

This is the letter that was read to Lindsay at the U of Tennessee - Knoxville Phi Mu Senior Spotlight on April 2, 2012.


Dear Lindsay,

When you first hinted around about the “gift,” we talked about a quilt – a T-Shirt quilt full of memories of UT and Phi Mu. You sent me T-shirts, and I panicked. I’ve never quilted! What to do?!?

So I went to your “Auntie” Marj Powley – you know, the one who made you tie-dyed onesies when you were a baby, and gave you a stuffed chicken when everyone else gave you bears. She is a real quilter, so I knew she could help. Marj said, “Sure, you can do a T-shirt quilt!” and so we made the plans.

Please open package #1 (the bigger one with the little hearts on the tie)

Wow! It’s a T-shirt quilt! With the shirts you sent! In Phi Mu and Tennessee colors! But if you look closely, there is a tag… I didn’t make it. Not because I couldn’t, but because I was busy… with another quilt.

Marj said that making a “real” quilt would not be easy, but that she would teach me what I needed to know. I convinced her that she would have to do any really hard parts. We knew that Grandma could help too.

So I fussed and fussed over the “theme” of the quilt…We thought about music. That led to lists of your favorite songs and singers… which led to Miranda Lambert (who you say everyone says you look like)… which led to the song which set the theme for the quilt… “The house that built me.” Like the song, I wanted to tell the story of the many places and people that helped to build the smart, sassy, loving, beautiful, wonderful Lindsay. I started with a list of all the houses you’ve lived in. Yikes.

But in the end, I decided that it’s really not about houses, but about HOME. Home is where you get to grow, and learn, and make mistakes, and celebrate all your successes, and figure out who you are. Sometimes it’s a house, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s where you lived, sometimes not. Home always includes family, but family can be many things: parents, steps, grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, friends, sorority sisters, neighbors, teachers, other people’s parents… all the people in your life that really care about you.

Home is just another word for Love.

I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished in your life. I can’t wait to see where you go from here. Wherever it is, and whatever you do, I hope this quilt reminds you of HOME and how much you are loved.

YMFD

Love, Mom

Now you can open package #2

PS. I learned from Marj that quilts have names. This quilt’s name is HOME. A document with details about each square is tucked in the label/pocket on the back.