9/10: Mary Bear for Linda

One of the reasons I learned how to make these Memory Bears was so I could make them for people I love. This bear is for my friend Linda who has been a good friend for a long time. It was hard for her to know her mother, Mary, was losing her battle with cancer last spring. I asked her if I could make a bear for her when it was the right time. Sadly, the time was this summer. Linda sent me a little package with capris and a blouse her mother wore often,  a bracelet, a ladybug stick pin, a ladybug and a beautiful card. She explained that these were clothes her mother wore when they would go to the gardening store, and the flowers in the blouse were a symbol of her love of flowers and nature. The bracelet and pin were things her mother wore, too, and she asked me to incorporate them if I could. The ladybug bear?  Well, that was a gift for me as she knew I love ladybugs just as her mother did. Ladybug Bear now keeps me company while I create bears for other people. Pretty sweet.

I didn't know Mary, so I asked Linda to tell me about her so I could have a sense of her while I made the bear. These are Linda's words:

She adored gardening & our trips to the nursery most of all and ultimately we bought the place out and would laugh until we felt sick..it was such fun, and she always looked forward to when her agapanthas were about to bloom. She loved her baby birds..she had them every year right outside her livingroom window. Her birds had many birdhouses, and seeds of all kinds and even had those cotton balls of nesting material hung so they could make warm nests..her birds were so spoiled! Her main love was "Woolie"..her solid white Pomeranian..he looks like a little white bear cub.. he misses her still..he is 10 years old. Her love of her children and grandchildren and dog were the foundation of her world and she had the kindest most generous heart of anyone I've ever met. I surely will miss her always.

Usually I listen to music when I sew but this time I listened to my wind chime and the birds playing around our birdfeeder. It felt right. I made this bear a little differently since it was for a friend and I had a little more leeway than when making them for Hospice. I made the actual bear out of the jean fabric from the capris and then did my best to duplicate the top, making it small enough to fit the bear. I added the jewelry and came up with Mary Bear.

 I  took her picture outside in the sunshine and then sent her home to Linda along with a little piece of lady bug jewelry from my collection.

Linda loves her bear and has found great comfort from it near her. That means Mary Bear is doing exactly what she was designed for and Linda knows it was made with love. I'm so happy I can do this for friends as well as people I've never met. I am blessed.