Aunt Dawn

I had lost touch with my Dad’s side of the family when my parents split up many years ago when I was just 8 years old.  My sister Kathleen had been researching the family tree, and after discovering a formerly unknown cousin, the pieces all fitted together and we made contact again several years ago.  My aunt wasn’t anything like I had imagined.  Everything about her was dainty, from her slight build to her tiny hands and feet.  She had grey hair, cut in a fashionable bob, and her eyes twinkled from behind her glasses as she talked.  I really wanted to know about my father, as my mother refused to talk about him while we were growing up.  “Your Dad really had to grow up early”, Dawn told me.  “He left school at 12 to work in a grocer’s shop and as he was bringing home a wage, he really was the man of the house”.  Dawn told me that she had often wondered about us two girls over the years, and crocheted us both a lovely woollen rug as a “welcome back into the family” gift. 

Crocheted blanket

We called in to see my aunt today and she proudly showed me her sewing area she had set up in the garage - as she doesn’t drive she has plenty of room for her sewing supplies.  Dawn loves to potter around on her sewing machine.  “Perhaps you’ll be taking up quilting next?” I asked her.  “Oh no”, she replied, “I’m couldn’t be a quilter like you”.  That’s all right Dawn,  I don’t know how to crotchet!

Dawn at her sewing machine