Pandemic projects: Grandmother finishes quilt started by daughter

Lorraine Council said anyone who met her daughter, Amber Wiseman, soon knew two things about her: She loved Jesus and she loved her husband, Curtis, and her son, Cameron.

An avid athlete, Cameron had participated in wrestling, baseball and basketball – and his mom was always at his matches and games to root for him.

A few years ago, Cameron, 23, decided to piece some of his many team T-shirts into a blanket. When he abandoned the project, Amber picked it up. She decided to make him a quilt for his December birthday.

She wasn’t able to finish it.

Amber died of pneumonia not related to COVID on Sept. 3.

However, thanks to his grandmother, Cameron will still get his quilt, just for Christmas instead of his birthday.

“Amber was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2019, right after her 46th birthday,” said Council. “She started the quilt while waiting for a bone marrow transplant. Because of the fatigue, she could only handle short periods of work on it.”

She left the quilt behind when she traveled to Seattle for the transplant, which she received Dec. 3, 2019.

“By January, she was getting antsy to come home, and she wanted me to work on the quilt with one of her close friends,” Council recalled. “I’d never made a quilt before, but I knew how to sew.”

They spent a couple of days framing the 18 quilt blocks with bright red fabric.

“When I asked her how much more she wanted us to do, she said she wanted to finish it herself when she got home in March,” said Council.

Amber picked up the project determined to finish it, but in July she became ill with a series of unexplained fevers.

She repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19, and finally her doctors determined she had BK virus – an illness that sometimes occurs in transplant patients.

Cameron’s quilt was almost one-third of the way done when Amber was hospitalized for the last time.

“When I said goodbye to her, I told her, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your boys (her husband and son) and I’ll finish the blanket,’ ” Council recalled. “I picked up the quilt the day after she died.”

She’s worked on it diligently, and finished the labor of love a couple of weeks ago.

The queen-size quilt, backed with warm gray fleece, tells the story of Cameron’s athletic career. Memories of championships and teams, combined with his mother’s stitches and his grandmother’s needlework, make this an unforgettable pandemic project.

“The hand-tying took the most time,” said Council. “My cousin helped me with it.”

As they worked, they talked about Amber.

“It helped with the grieving,” Council said.

She was looking forward to seeing Cameron open it on Christmas, but last week he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

The gift will have to wait a bit longer.

“He’s been so strong. He’s been the one holding us up,” she said.

When at last he’s able to unwrap it, his grandmother wants him to know he will sleep each night covered by the warmth of his mother’s love.

Council ran her hand across the quilt.

“I hope it will comfort him, and help him continue to remember her,” she said.