When I lost Jim, I had all this 'stuff' of his. One of those items was his t-shirts. He loved getting a t-shirt anytime he went somewhere special. I decided to cut them up in squares for a quilt and worked up the courage to ask Jim's Aunt Judy to put it together. She is amazingly talented. Jim loved his Aunt Judy so much. He loved her cooking for him and playing Bridge with him. Judy finished the quilt in August and presented it to Emily while she was here (from Michigan) for Ed and Lois's 50th wedding anniversary. It is amazing. I was so surprised at my reaction - each square brought back a special memory. Judy wrote a note on the back to Emily as well as placed a picture of Jim on it. Today would have been our 10th wedding anniversary.
Square 1 - Red Cross T-Shirt: Jim loved giving blood and platelets. He liked doing something good for someone and then getting cookies and orange juice afterwards.
Square 2 - Toyota: Jim had this when I met him. He drove a black Toyota Tacoma. He was pretty handsome driving that truck. He hauled a lot with it.
Square 3 - Vyvx Fiber Team: I always got freebe shirts in Jim's size. He loved it.
Square 4 - Cozumel: I finally talked Jim into a warm weather vacation. We all had a blast. I loved watching him and Emily snorkel, play on the beach and swim in the pool.
Square 5 - Minich Migration: The Minichs drive from all over the U.S. to meet for Thanksgiving dinner. We went most years. There is usually from 100 to 115 people every year. This particular year, I loaned Jim my car to drive up there. It was snow and ice most of the way. He said he couldn't get much over 70 because of the ice packed roads.
Square 6 - Sweet Jim. I like this picture, not sure when it was taken.
Square 7 - This shirt was from Excaret. It was an adventure theme park at Playa del Carmen when we went to Cozumel in 2005. Jim absolutely loved the ferry trip between the two islands. I enjoyed watching him and Emily snorkeling. She would get so excited seeing a fish. I could see her pointing to the fish showing her Daddy. Emily left her blankie at the hotel when we left. Jim paid for an empty cab to go to the hotel, pick up her blankie and bring it to us at the airport.
Square 8 - Someone gave him this shirt. He loved Dr. Suess and read his books to Emily and at the preschool at our church and to Emily's classroom at Rejoice. He had several memorized from cover to cover. He was so cute reading them. His Mother gave him 'Oh The Place You Will Go' for graduation. We as a family got a lot of enjoyment out of Jim reading those books.
Square 9 - Hey! That thing got a Hemi? Jim taught Emily to say that when he got his truck in 2004. He was quite proud of his Hemi. Tony has it now and it very proud that it belonged to Jim.
Square 10 - Amy Grant. Jim loved music. He had quite the collection of albums, mp3s, cds and on and on. If he liked someone, he would buy every album they ever had. We would go on vacation to Michigan and never have to hear the same song twice. He has passed on his love for music and his music tastes to his daughter.
Square 11 - Winter Blast. This was a church shirt. He loved our church and was so involved in activities. He played volleyball, basketball, baseball. He helped me teach on Wednesdays, helped with TAG, was on the chain ministry, worked in the nursery, helped with communion, and on and on. We were/are so greatful for our church. They were so there for us during all of this - First Christian Church Owasso Oklahoma.
Square 12 - Myers Plumbing. This is Jim's cousins business in Michigan. Jim was very proud of this t-shirt and just loved seeing Robyn and her family. He thought they were so cool. And they are! Robyn's mother made this quilt.
Square 13 - Awe. Jim and Emily. This is one of my favorite pictures. It so shows his love for her and how precious she was to him. I loved watching them play.
Square 14 - MCI. This is where Jim worked. They were very much family to him - to us. During his illness, they took such good care of us. I was so impressed with how much they loved Jim. He was so darn smart and had such a sweet spirit. One of my favorite stories of him at work was when I first started working there and we were playing volleyball. The team was divided up and, of course, Jim's side always won. We were in a team meeting and someone was commenting about Jim playing so well and said we needed to put a handicap on him. Jim held up his arm with no hand and said 'duh'. He was so funny.
More to come.....
