Grandpa and Brother

We have a new sprout on the family tree!  A week ago yesterday, my brother's daughter, my niece Beth, gave birth to her second daughter, little Hannah Faith.  My brother is now "Grandpa" to two.

As soon as I opened this image sent by the proud grandpa, I couldn't help but see my father etched in my brother's face. The slope of the nose, the shape of the mouth, even the profile echo my dad and remind me so clearly that our DNA shapes and helps determine us. As I age, I note traces of my mother and my grandmother surfacing in me; it pleases me.  My mother and father never lived to see their great grandchildren come into the world, but they live on in this our common and continuing family tree.  I wonder what traits of theirs might manifest in this new generation? We are never really alone when connected to the all the saints who have gone before us.  Amazing, profound, glorious, and comforting, isn't it?

The past week, we celebrated Memorial Day, and as the family representatives living locally, Jim and I assume the responsibility of decorating the graves of both sets of parents.  As I made the quilt for baby Hannah, I also keenly felt a similar matriarchal emissary status.

I finished the quilt last night, knotting the final thread on the hand sewed chocolate binding around the edges.  I sewed a quilt label to the inside corner, labeling Hannah's quilt with my own name.  Someday that just may mean something to her.  I hope so.

The quilt design is the same brick pattern I used for the quilt I made my granddaughter Rosemary last year. Rosie and I regularly snuggle under its weight during her nap time, thus I know first hand of its warmth and covering.

Sunday, we meet Dick and Lissa in Lewisburg, and I will hand off Hannah's quilt for special delivery to their new granddaughter. Dick is preaching at the chapel service for their 40th Bucknell College reunion.  I remember driving our little VW Beetle over those country roads to visit my big brother after he left me, a high school senior, to become a college freshman.  I was and always have been so proud of him...