Thinking of Daddy

Earlier today, I was stacking some quilts as I was readying for a speaking engagement that will take place in a couple of weeks.  One of the quilts in the pile is a very old one made of rectangles of wool in very masculine, dark colors.

I was told that the rectangles of wool are tailor samples used by my grandfather, Claude Milton Jackson, Sr., who, for some period of time, had a store named "Jackson's Cheap Dry Goods".  It was located in Chester, Georgia in the last part of the 1800's and the first of the 1900's.  He would show customers the samples and he'd order suits for them.  

Wonder when he stopped being a merchant and turned to teaching.  He was a teacher when he met and fell in love with my grandmother, one of his students.  The rascal.

Anyway, the quilt rectangles are sewn together and trimmed in bright briar stitching that is done by hand.  For years I thought my grandmother had made it, but was later told that one of their house servants made it.  huh.

I think of Daddy when I see this wonderful quilt and since he died, I guess I grieve a little too....happy and sad thoughts.  Gawd.  I loved my Daddy. And that love stays constant. There have been so many times that I really have needed to see and talk to him in the 20 years he's been gone.  

Soon after he died I dreamed that I answered the door and found him standing there and he looked at me, smiled, and said, "I'm all right, sweetheart." 

That helped somehow.

With Father's Day approaching, our thoughts naturally turn to our fathers.  If you still have yours, hold him and tell you that you love him. And give him a chance to tell you that he loves you.  If you don't still have him, try to remember that when Daddies love us, the love doesn't vanish when they are gone. 

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.  I love you.