When my father was in hospice last fall, a social worker trained in end-of-life family care took me and my sisters aside.
Her words brought us a glimmer of comfort and peace.
She tenderly explained we could trace our dad’s hand on a sheet of paper and this pattern would be used as an applique for a pillow, something to hug and to hold during the hard times that were ahead. If we wished, we could even supply one of his favorite shirts, and that fabric would be incorporated into the keepsake.
We all agreed this would be a lovely keepsake, and our hearts soared when she shared a story of the woman who crafts the pillows.
Merilyn Reinhardt, she explained, is 93 and as soon as she gets an order, she goes to work.
Reinhardt, of Villa Hills in Kentucky, didn’t set out to become a part of so many family memories.
She joined a crafting group in 2013. They met weekly at Crescent Springs Presbyterian Church to crochet. A fellow crafter and friend, a volunteer at St. Elizabeth’s Hospice Center in Edgewood, was talking about her work and the help they needed. She asked the group if anyone could sew.
Merilyn replied, “I sew, I’ll try.”
Her friend then brought her a kit. She did the work. In fact, she did it so well that the hospice folks asked for more.
With hospice supplying all the materials, Merilyn has been stitching pillows ever since, appliqueing the cutouts onto a 13-by-13-inch square, then finishing with a border and backing.
She especially loves it when she gets to personalize her work. If sewing for a University of Kentucky basketball fan, for example, the fabric could display the UK wildcat. Or a gardening enthusiast gets some sunflowers or butterflies on their pillow.
The crafting group also crochets small afghans or, as they call them, lap robes for hospice to distribute to wheelchair-bound patients. They also make afghans for Crescent Springs Presbyterian Church parishioners who have had babies.
Merilyn remembers a fellow crafter who returned after a bout with cancer. “When she came back, we made caps. We sent a big black garbage bag of caps, all different kinds and all different styles, to the cancer unit and they donated them to patients as needed,” she said.
Merilyn has no idea how many memory pillows she’s made. But Debbie Holloran, volunteer coordinator at St. Elizabeth Hospice, does. She estimates Merilyn has stitched nearly 1,500 pillows.
Merilyn will celebrate her 94th birthday on April 1. She lost her sister, her last living relative, in March 2020. She still shares a lot of family love with her sister’s stepchildren who take very good care of her, she says. She knows how much it means to have them near.
It is why she continues to make the pillows. Because she believes we must cherish our loved ones in life and hold on to as much as we have of them when they are gone.
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