This morning I got up at 4:00 a.m. and drove 120 miles to Portland to meet someone I had found online.
Me: “I’m 5’5” with long red hair and a black and green purse with lots of studs in it.” Other: “I’m 5’8” with short white hair and a purple coat.” My contact pulled up beside me in the parking lot, we tagged each other as the designated agents, and made the drop. Two stuffed kitchen trash bags were transferred from a Toyota into a VW.
So began the official start of Operation Quilts to Christchurch. The bags, of course, contained handmade quilts, three from agent Maxine and one from Jill. I’ll pick up a whopping 100 child-size “blankies” next week in Bangor. Eight bed quilts will come from Augusta, another four from Orono.
Four will leave my Stockton Springs sewing room, hopefully in the next ten days, with another big one two weeks after that from Greensboro. And who knows how many the local guild chapter in Belfast will supply?
I’ll send them to people in Christchurch for as long as I can gather them.
As you have read earlier in this blog, the last day of our New Zealand trip found us in Christchurch, the same jewel of a city that had so captivated my grandparents many years ago. Days later, however, that lovely town was destroyed in a massive earthquake that has killed 161 people at this writing (victims are still being found) and reduced the central business district and many outlying residential areas to a mass of crushed rubble and mud.
In the aftermath of the quake, I have found myself haunting the New Zealand news website, www.stuff.co.nz, on a daily basis. The stories of compassion and heroism from Christchurch humble me, and tears are a daily occurrence.
Of course my first desire after the quake was to get myself back down there to work, but someone dear to me gently helped me understand that such tasks are better left to those trained to do them, without having amateurs in the way.
Still… who among us can witness pain and loss and not ache to ease the suffering?
As I watch news of campers and modular homes being brought to the area to house the thousands of displaced residents, I have realized that something I can do is send quilts. Christchurch is heading into its winter season. And while winter there is nothing like winter in Maine, it is still cold, and gas and electricity for heating is a challenge with a totally disrupted infrastructure.
So while the people of Christchurch work at rebuilding their city and their lives, with lost homes, lost jobs, and lost loved ones creating huge holes in their lives, we have the opportunity to help by sending quilts to keep them warm, and perhaps to warm their hearts with the compassion that Maine quilters possess in such abundance.
Yes, relief agencies provide piles and piles of plastic-wrapped blankets. But to someone who has lost literally everything, who is moving in to a stark, cold, small housing unit with little more than the clothes they’ve been able to find since the quake, a homemade quilt, a thing of beauty made for them by someone half a world away who really cares…
My deepest hope is that the warmth of the quilter’s heart will warm the heart of the home that receives her gift.
For more information, please post a message to me at moxielady@me.com.
Let’s warm some hearts!
1 comment:
I am really happy to have found this blog, and reading it brought tears to my eyes...even though it has now been 5 years since the Christchurch Earthquakes (12,000+ of them). My children received quilts ( my 4 year old son a small cot-sized throw piece with red love hearts) from their kindergarten and school. My 12 year old daughter received a single-bed sized quilt from Maine. There was a creamy white tag on it with the name of the quilter and a Maine address, but due to the ongoing stresses we were facing, just coping with thrice daily earthquakes, living without water and sanitation plumbing in our home which was doing a mild imitation of the Titanic, getting eventually Red Zoned and then having to find elsewhere to live meant I never quite managed to write and thank the dear woman/men who had created this beautiful masterpiece that brought so much comfort to my daughter in the shaking terrors in the dark of night. With no small amount of guilt I carefully packed the white label with our things when we were forced to leave our home ( the land was too damaged to warrant continued habitation and our entire neighbourhood is now demolished), with a promise in my heart to write and thank the maker when I could. There are still unopened boxes in my new garage and sadly it hasn't come to light. The quilt was a lovely one in soft floral blues and pinks with the wee knotted tassels on it. Beyond the warmth of the quilt itself, perhaps the greater warmth was that of the hearts of the givers...thank you all so much and in particular the lady who has never received my letter. Please pass this on to all involved in the hope it should fall into the right hands. We shall always treasure your kindness and your creation with reverence.
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