Ann Van Zee

This is blanky, my daughter's beloved blanket. She has slept it with every night since she born. It was originally a simple white flannel blanket with crocheted edges that my paternal Grandma gave to me when I was a baby. My mom never used it, and when my daughter was born my mom sent it to me to give to her. I didn't think much about it and one day stumbled upon it in a drawer and decided to gently drape it over my daughter during a nap. When she woke up, she took it with her out of the crib and then proceeded to take it with her everywhere she went. That blanket went all over the city of Chicago (where we lived the first 6 years of my daughter's life), has been to Spain 3 times, up and down the west coast more times than I can count, to Canada, and been in countless planes, trains and automobiles. We had one traumatic evening where we thought we lost it forever at our favorite Chicago thrift store but thankfully an employee found it in a pile of items to "throw out". My daughter loved that blanket so much that it started to shred and essentially disappear. Each time a new hole appeared we would go to the fabric store and choose a piece of flannel to repair it. I taught myself to sew on my maternal Grandma's old sewing machine and stitched that blanket back to life each time a new rip or hole appeared. The only hole my daughter wouldn't let me repair is the one that turned it into a cape. :) Both my Grandmas passed before my daughter was born but I like to think of all the women and all the love that has been stitched into that blanket and how each night, for the last 14 years, when my daughter goes to sleep, that love covers her.