Back in the 1970s, my great-grandma Virginia was an RN. Every time she was on break, she would pull out her crochet hook and yarn. The colors were very much reminiscent of their time: golds and tomato reds. Together, she would make Granny Squares with different color patterns, each surrounded in black. Over time, she would collect these squares and throw them into a bag. In 1988, my mom visited Virginia in Pendelton and, she gave my mother the bag. It wasn’t until 1997 that my mother learned how to crochet.

Virginia on left. Mom on right.

I was in high school when my mom decided to start pulling the separate squares into a single blanket. She hated the idea of Great-grandma’s handiwork collecting dust in her hope chest. She laid out each square on the bed in the guest room. My mom wrote down the common color themes and arranged them by symmetry. She would come to craft stores with me and compare yarn colors with a square that was in her purse. Eventually, she gathered her materials and started working on finishing history.

Now the blanket is on top of the hope chest, and brought to life. Great-grandma Virginia died November 22, 2000.