A Precious Story

 Hello Everyone,

I'm going to tell you just the sweetest story of a wonderful happening at the retreat at Lake Tahoe.

I have to go back and lay some groundwork.  I grew up in Paradise, CA, the infamous town that burned to the ground in 2018.  Our home, which had been in the family for six decades burned to the ground.  Luckily the renters living there were able to escape the flames and got to safety.  My son loved that little cottage in the woods and planned on moving there when he retires from his job with the city of Pleasanton.

I was so distraught with the loss of my community that I knew I had to do something, so I raffled off one of my quilts, Emilie Elizabeth, to raise money for the community.  I contacted the Paradise fire chief, and he gave me names of first responders who lost their homes while battling the fire. I also had many friends who I'd known since kindergarten who lost everything. The trick was finding out where the people had relocated so I could send them a check.

Checks began arriving in response to my raffle.  Money arrived from all over the world.  The winning name was drawn at the first meeting of the Paradise Quilt Guild after the fire in January of 2019 where I was asked to speak.  This was the cover slide for my talk.

The winner of the quilt was Deborah, from Ann Arbor, MI.  I contacted her via email, and she said that she had been thinking that if she was lucky enough to win the quilt, she wanted to donate it back to be raffled off again! So, she did. 

She also said that she would love to attend one of my retreats.  So, plans were set in place for Deborah to come to California in the Fall of 2019, stay with us at the cabin and go to the retreat.

Upon her arrival, we became friends in a nanosecond, and we've been good friends ever since. She has been in attendance at of my retreats every year since 2019.

Deborah had never been to Yosemite, so off we went to show her the spectacular views of this incredible location.

She really wanted to see a bear while we were in the park.  At the end of the day as we were driving out of the park, she saw a bear for real!  We really did see one!

She is a big Michigan football fan, and since we love to watch a good game, we enjoyed watching a Michigan game together.  We were so surprised when Michigan scored, and Deborah jumped up off the couch and sang the entire Michigan Fight Song.  We roared with laughter!

Our utility supplier turned the power off prior to the retreat in 2019 due to high winds and great potential for fire.  We turned the cabin into a soup kitchen to feed the quilters as everything was closed down in town.

Deborah rolled up her sleeves and started cooking.  You can see her right in the middle of the kitchen keeping a close eye on the stove.

Fast forward to this year.  During my retreat at Lake Tahoe, Deborah presented me with an Emilie Elizabeth quilt which she made to replace the quilt I raffled off!  She made it using my Hearthstone fabric.  This surprised me more than when she jumped up and sang the fight song!  There wasn't a dry eye during our show and tell.  I was speechless and that doesn't happen very often.

The label is over the top!

I will always treasure the Emilie Elizabeth quilt Deborah made for me. Our friendship is stitched together and bound firmly with love. 

Soon,

Lynn