I've missed the Pacific International Quilt Show just twice. Once when my sister's first home closed escrow and I helped her move out of their apartment the weekend of the Quilt Show. Once because I'd just started working after raising my kids.
Then September 11th rocked our world and all of us realized how fragile life was. I knew how my parents felt when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The Pledge of Allegiance suddenly took on deeper meaning. Patriotism and flags ruled. America was united in a way I'd never experienced.
It would sound trivial to say that I've never missed Pac Int'l since, unless you knew that it's not the quilt show that's important, it's all the friends who carve time out of their busy schedules every year to come. The quilt show is an excuse, a really good excuse, filled with gorgeous quilts and vendors galore. The real draw is seeing far-flung friends, catching up on family and jobs and health concerns, sharing our mutual creative enthusiasms, meeting new babies, passing around photos of our homes and gardens. Our yearly October get-together is a touchstone of friendship. I cherish our group photos taken through the years.
September 11th reaffirmed for me that friendship is a treasure that must be tended carefully and never taken for granted. So I take those days in October off year after year. I can make do without quite a lot, but I need my friends.
Getting together with good friends is so important. What a great occassion! And Sept. 11th will always mean to me the time my husband decided he needed to marry me. He told me that day, and how frightened he was about losing me (the plane that crashed in PA flew right by my high rise in Cleveland. I saw it from my balcony) confirmed he needed me in his life. He bought the ring a week later.
ReplyDeleteVP, you gave me goosebumps with your story. That's just the best.
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