A Thank you from national headquarters

We received the following thank you note. It's meant for all of you -
please pass it along to your chapter volunteers.
I wanted to write and thank you for a quilt that was made by one of your
volunteers. Since I cannot thank the maker personally, I want to share it with
you all. I have three children, my oldest was a week away from turning four,
my second had just turned 19 months when my third child was born. He was
born premature and with holes in his lungs. Because he had so much difficulty
breathing, I was unable to hold him when he was born. Due to the
complications we both faced I wasn’t able to even see him for over 9 hours. When I was
finally wheeled into the nursery he was on oxygen and I was only able to look
at him through his little “tent”. 24 hours after he was born (2 am in the
morning) I was awakened by the pediatrician and told that his complications
were more serious than they felt they could handle in their hospital. He was
being transported to the nearest NICU which was more than 2 hours away. At
the time my two little ones at home were sick with a virus that could
compromise my new born and were therefore not allowed to come in contact with him.
Even more than that, I was told that if I had contact with my daughters, I
would be unable to have contact with my newborn son for fear of contaminating
him with the virus. I was devastated. Due to my complications with the
pregnancy, I was to remain in the hospital under doctors care with my daughters at
home and my son in a hospital far away. It was by far the biggest nightmare
I had ever experienced. When I was finally well enough to visit him, I found
him with tubes all over his body. He was under a light to keep him warm and
underneath him was a beautiful quilt that I was told had been donated by
volunteers from your organization. More than a week passed by after his birth
before I as able to hold my little one in my arms for the first time. He was
wrapped in a quilt made by your organization. I will never forget that
precious moment. A few days later he was able to come home. A nurse lovingly
swaddled him and placed this beautiful quilt around him to send him home. That
quilt is still his favorite one, even now 20 months after his birth. It’s
the quilt he has to have each night to cuddle under. To me it’s a reminder of
love. When I look at that quilt I am reminded of how much love I felt when
I first held him in my arms, how much love it must have taken to make it, and
how much love I feel for the person who made it and didn’t even know me.
Thank you so much! Sincerely, a grateful mother
P.S. I was taught to sew at a young age, and loving sewing. I have however
never learned to quilt and up to this point in my life never really had an
interest to know how. Since the birth of my son and after his struggles, I
find myself wanting to learn how to quilt in order to share this precious gift
with someone else. I wanted to let you know that I intend to learn how to
quilt and perhaps some day I will be able to return the favor to someone else!
Thank you for touching my life with something so simple as a blanket!