My uncle Frank was a missionary priest in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in the 1960s and 1970s. I remember my mother using her wedding dress to create vestments for him to take to Pakistan. Some of the people he converted to Catholicism helped him escape when revolution broke out in the 1970s. This blanket, a gift from Monica Gonzalez, was a thank you gift for letting her live with us fro several months in Arlington, VA. It is a proxy for the yards of material that were so much a part of our early lives. Milton and I both wore lots of homemade clothing, from our mothers and grandmothers. Homemade clothing is as comforting as blankets. They remind us of the comforts of home and family.
These thoughts all come together as I remember Uncle Frank, who owned nothing except what he was given. We sent lots of homemade clothes to him, and he sent us black and white pictures of children wearing them in Pakistan. I feel a tie to Pakistan even though I have never been there.