Aunt Catherine's Blanket

This was a winning entry for "The Writer's Cramp" . The prompt was to write about a seamstress with unusual powers. This poem is about my very much beloved and missed Aunt Catherine. I really got to know her after my Dad passed away. She was the oldest of ten children and my Dad was the second child. They were close and started school together - my Dad started when he was four years old. Aunt Catherine went out of her way to help my mother and me through the most difficult of times. I have never met anyone that I admire more than I did her.

Aunt Catherine's Blanket

She searched for her button box
but not for buttons,
for needles
It made sense to Catherine

A lady in her eighties,
sewing magical blankets for red haired baby boys
she would never meet
but blessed with her kindness and caring

Never a fan of cats,
she avoided them whenever possible
sent finally to a nursing home with
cats running free

Using her magic blanket as a shield
so the cats never saw her fear
Gone now for a while
she lives on in my heart and memory

You see one of those blankets
is on a bed upstairs
a shield and protector
for all the fears inside me until I see her again

She gave nothing but love,
this sister of my father
wrapped in a blanket
comforting me home

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