The Blue Blanket

In times of disasters people come to the aid of those affected. If you have experienced first-hand a tornado, a flood, an earthquake or fire, you will have been surrounded by assistance, be it financial, caring words of comfort and support, the use of another's home or vehicle, nourishment or supplies.

Thoughtfulness comes flooding in and helps ease the shock of the sudden change to one's life. The stresses of the event are somewhat softened by the generosity of others. Then there is time, the healer that takes its time.

Nine years after the uprooting wildfire that changed our lives forever, few scars remain. Life goes on and the wounds smoothed over with ever-changing events and just living life. The help, cards, notes, gifts and financial assistance received have dimmed, along with the pain, as the passage of time has continued to fill in the scars.

But today, and each day as I make our bed, I fold the blue blanket over the sheets and remember my friend, Dorothy, who sent that cozy blanket through the mail to our temporary residence. I have used it daily since that horrific fire. It has been a comfort through the seasons and the permanent move to our new home. Each morning as I make the bed I remember Dorothy and her mindful gift since it is still being used after all of these years, be it as a cover for warmth, or easily folded down during the heat of summer.

Dorothy writes several times a year, now through the ease of emails. I follow the adventures of her encounters with our former co-workers and their on-going lives, her volunteer work in the Twin Cities, her difficult move with her husband from their home of many years to an apartment, her children and grandchildren and the more recent death of her husband.

Contact has been lost with many of my former colleagues, but I remain kept in the loop through Dorothy and her regular newsy emails in addition to her annual Christmas letters. I am grateful for her continual connections and as I make the bed each morning I feel the softness of her thoughtful gift of the blue blanket.