my new favorite pillow

My grandma embroidered this piece of fabric a long time ago. Possibly as early as the 1920's, my mom says. It's been sitting in a drawer since then. First in grandma's own drawer, and then lately in my mom's. It came out this summer, and was given to me.
I made a pillow out of it. All that was needed was a seam around the three sides. It was pretty obvious it had been meant to be made into a pillow all along. No creative credit to me.
My grandma's embroidery was always bold like this. Which is kind of surprising, because she was not particularly bold in person. It's pretty, huh?

The fluffy insides is made up of an old pillow that had originated with my other grandma. So, here I have it: comfort from two grandmas, in one go.

Which reminds me of another story. Last spring, every day one of my students would proudly wear a large cross outside his shirt. At one point when we were talking about identity and self expression I asked him about it. He said the cross had been a present from his grandma. Since cultural studies is a detail oriented activity I asked him about the chain too. He said it had been give to him by his other grandma. So, symbolically he had joined his two grandmas and was wearing them around his neck. I thought that was rather sweet for a twenty year old boy.

The point of the story, however, is that my student's two grandmas had both of them been opposed to his parents' marriage. One of his parents was of Mexican decent, and the other one came from an Italian family. When they met and married, no one was happy. The grandmas didn't speak to each other.

So even more powerful their grandson's statement in joining their gifts.