Sometimes the simplest things can have the biggest impact and a short deadline can bring people together to work on a single project. We saw this in action in the last week of October when four Wool for Warmth clubs and one church pulled together to make a comfort blanket for Achmed’s mom.
Stichting Perspektief, the homeless shelter in Delft, said that the most important thing we could do was to make a comfort blanket for Achmed’s mom. We were surprised because we offered hats and scarves, sweaters, blankets, etc, etc. But the most important thing was to help Achmed’s mom.
Her story is very sad. She fled Kuwait as a refugee 4 years ago, alone and pregnant. She lives in Delft, The Netherlands with her son Achmed, the child she was pregnant with when she fled her home. Achmed had epilepsy since birth and I cannot imaging how hard it is to be a refugee, let alone pregnant. Let alone having to deal with a baby with epilepsy. On 21 March 2021, while his mom was cooking his favourite dinner of hamburgers, Achmed had a seizure in his bed and died. And his mom is inconsolable.
There is little we can do to help this grieving mom, but we can make a kind gesture to help her grieve. In five days, The Koningskerk (without their knowledge, but using squares made by their congregation), Cosy Cosas Breiclub, Australia New Zealand Knitting Club, Sunday Library Knitting Club, the Gang at Soza, and Marga who works with our blanket squares, pulled together and made a comfort blanket for Achmed’s mom in her son’s favourite colours: primary yellow, blue, and red plus Kelly green.
Wat hebben jullie iemand geraakt Cathy! Ze is er enorm door geraakt en blij mee!
How you touched someone Cathy! She is very touched by it and happy with it.
Monday afternoon, Miranda, the social worker at Stichting Perspekief, asked if we could make the blanket.
Tuesday morning a call went to Marga who manages all of our blanket squares. She sorted through the squares donated by the Koningskerk in Voorburg and Wednesday morning brought us 37 squares in the correct colours. This gave us a good start and the pattern size. 15cm x 15cm.
Wednesday we activated four of our clubs. We distributed all the wool from the Wool for Warmth stock to members who could knit or crochet quickly under pressure. Wool cakes were broken open to remove the needed wool. People looked in their personal stashes. But it was not enough. Teams spread out to the Zeeman and Wibra stores in The Hague and Amsterdam. These colours were very difficult to find as they are apparently not in style this autumn. But we managed to find enough wool for the blanket.
Zahia spent the weekend designing the blanket in a way that we could add the squares as they came in. Then she did most of the sewing together.
By Monday morning, 103 additional squares were knitted and crocheted by members of four clubs. Cathy knit the letters A C H M E D. Anita crocheted 4 granny squares that were used in the corners. This made the total 140, Enough for the blanket.
5 days, one comfort blanket. Then we made the Social Worker at Stichting Perspektief cry with joy! Here is Eshete with Miranda the social worker.
But most importantly, we made Achmed’s mom smile. That is Achmed looking on in the photo on the wall.
If you want to touch someone’s life, do your best for them. Thank you to all the clubs that participated in making Achmed’s mom smile.