A Blanket of Memories

The most important person in my life, prior to age 20, was my great-aunt Jewell. She was my grandfather's sister and she was amazing. Born in 1901, she was our family's first first college graduate and a true "Sooner." I was mesmerized by her stories of coming across the plains in a covered wagon. She outlived two husbands, and took over raising my mother when life became too difficult for my grandmother. Aunt Jewell never had children of her own, but she clung to my mother, and then to me, as though we were hers. My wonderful memories of my "Khaki" was endless and today I feel the need to reflect on her.


Aunt Jewell bought a brand new Cutlass in 19 and 70 with lovely striped, olive green interior. After driving it for a week, she promptly took it back to the dealership to have the radio removed because it distracted her while she was driving. Yes, they took the radio out and spray painted a metal plate which was screwed over the opening in the dash. Over thirty years later and this memory makes me howl with laughter. (Khaki, why couldn't you just turn the radio off??) Years later, after a family intervention to stop her driving at 84, she gave me the car but not before she had the seats reupholstered. (Who do you know that has reupholstered car seats????) Still in the lovely olive green family, the seats were now a lovely brocade paisley. Hence, the car was known by all my friends as "The Paise" and we spent countless hours cruising around with a boom box in the front seat because putting a radio back in it just seemed sacrilegious.


Finally, the memory which prompts my post today. When JB and I married (20+ years ago), among our wedding presents from Aunt Jewell was the comforter that we had registered for. (What was I thinking...beige with hints of peach and light green.) It has followed us around the globe and we still use it every night. It is long out of "fashion", but the comfort (both physical and emotional) has never been matched. Our son, WB, has become just as attached to it as I am since he either starts or ends with us almost every night. He never met our Aunt Jewell, she died 6 years before he was born, but he feels the love of this blanket every night..he even calls the blanket "Aunt Jewell." The blanket is now coming apart at the seams. (Don't think I haven't considered finding someone to refill and quilt it, because I have! I will likely do this, although I am sure they'll think I'm crazy to make such a request for a threadbare 80's comforter.)


Today, we bought a new khaki down blanket and we are gonna leave "Aunt Jewell" in the closet for a while. It was hard to get WB to agree, but he knows she still has a few good nights left in her...and we need to save those to share with our new baby sister.