The Quilt

I am meeting with Tanisha at the library. We find a table in the back for more privacy. Despite being homeless, Tanisha never appears stressed and always has a smile on her face, which always impressed me.

Once, when I was visiting Louisiana from North Carolina, my aunt DD called me and said, Amy, wants you to come over here later tonight. I didn't think much of it at the time, when I arrived at the house, Amy called me into her bedroom. She said, step I want you to have this quilt.

It's been in the family for a long time. I want you to have it, and I want you to take care of it. My aunt placed the quilt in a big black trash bag, and I placed the bag in the trunk of my dad's car. I was so excited. My mom had always nurtured a love of older things and antiques, and I knew that this was something that I would value. I had recently started quilting myself, and I was fascinated with the history and mystery of quilting.

Looking back, I bet some of my cousins would be upset if they knew that I had the quilt, but I was just happy that she gave it to me. I believe she realized that I would never cast this quilt away. She had to know that it was safe with me, and I was honored to receive it and have part of my father's family legacy. My paternal grandmother, Gertrude Amy Cooper was born in 1900 35 years after slavery was abolished.

She married at 17, had her first child at 18 and proceeded to have 12 more children. One day, my dad and I were watching a documentary on PBS about sharecropping. My dad shared how much his family despised the life of being a sharecropper. It didn't dawn on me at the time how transient my family had been, and how hard this had to be for my grandmother, dragging all those kids around with nothing but a meal and a few items. I also didn't realize that Amy not only raised her children, but she raised her nieces and nephews and many other children who lived on the plantation, both black and white, I began to look at my family with different eyes, and I thought about the uncertainty they faced, not knowing where they would go from plantation to plantation.

I can only imagine the many sleepless nights that my grandmother had trying to figure out what to do. I looked at her differently because I knew that she was a woman of strength and resilience. Annie's struggles were no different from many people today. Being displaced was the norm for my client, Tanisha, who remained homeless from the time she enrolled in Nurse Family Partnership until the time she graduated, we met at her friends apartments, public park benches, libraries and hotel lobbies, regardless of the location, Tanisha was always prepared, and I can still see her pulling her binder out of The trunk of the car.

When I said, Wow, you have your binder, she looked at me as if it was a no brainer. I could see that nurse family partnership and my relationship with her were the support that she saw as valuable. Tanisha kept her binder because it was something tangible that she could hold on now, when I reflect on Amy and the quilt, it feels good for me to have a tangible part of her life that I can hold on to. It reminds me of the strength, determination and blessings that have allowed me to be where I am today as a proud nurse, Family Partnership, nurse