This story was shared with Anne and me and Anne's mother Mary over dinner Saturday night by our close friend, 97-year-old Pat Ward with a joyful sparkle in her eyes. I think you too dear reader will enjoy it.
70 years ago when Pat was pregnant with Sheila, doctors ordered her to stay in bed to ensure Sheila would be born healthy and strong. To occupy Pat's time while she was in bed each day, her landlady taught her to knit and gave her blue yarn, which Pat used to begin to knit a sweater for her husband Ed.
Pat was feeling good and everything was going well until mid-way through knitting the sweater, it turned out there wasn't enough yarn for Pat to finish the job. So the landlady went back to the store, but discovered the only blue yarn available as Pat described it was "a vast difference in the shade of blue."
Now what was Pat going to do? She decided that rather than waste all the time and effort she had invested in this sweater, she would use the mismatched blue yarn and finish it. The result as Pat viewed it was a funny looking blue sweater. "After that, I gave up knitting," Pat told us with a laugh.
But Ed saw the sweater and being supportive of his wife during her pregnancy, happily insisted on wearing it. However when she saw him in the sweater she got embarrassed and told him, "Don't you dare go out of the house with that sweater on." With a smile, Ed respected her wishes, but still insisted on wearing the sweater, inside the house only.
Ed came to like the sweater so well, "He wore it until it wore out," Pat said wistfully with a smile, explaining that he wore that sweater for about 10 years and didn't want to let go of it.
"It's time to get rid of that sweater," Pat insisted while looking at what to her was a worn out tired old sweater. With a sigh, Ed good naturally gave her back what to him was his prized sweater. For beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder and Ed saw the beauty in that sweater, knit at such a vulnerable time in Pat's life and he lovingly saw the beauty in her and in her feelings. Under those circumstances, he knew he would never again see such a special sweater, funny looking as it may have been to Pat and to others.
All these many years later, it touched Pat’s heart as she thought of her devoted husband’s thoughtfulness and caring.
Dick
Note: Pat and Ed were married for 73 1/2 years until he passed away at the age of 96 in 2009. And I'll wager if that funny looking blue sweater was available to him throughout the years, he would gladly have worn it all over again many times over.
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