Tugging At My HeartStrings: A Daughter’s Love Story
There have been times in my life when a situation or story has pulled on my heartstrings. Those things typically come out of the blue and stick with me forever.
And It happened again the other day.
I received a custom order request from a potential Etsy customer. This is what she asked:
My father passed away and I have two of his favorite sweaters. I was wondering if I could send them to you and If you can make pillows out of them?
With misty eyes and no hesitation, I immediately responded. I told Dana that I had made pillow covers for this exact reason before. I sent her pricing and details.
I left the return message to her short and sweet because typically customers are shopping around the Etsy world to get the best deal and you don’t hear from them again.
Dana replied instantly.
Twenty-four conversations later, the sweaters were shipped and the transformation began.
Originally, I had offered to return any unused fabric instead of tossing it in the garbage, but Dana felt that she couldn’t handle seeing the leftover pieces.
Heart-strings pulled again.
She wanted 2 covers from her father’s St. Patrick’s Day sweater that he wore every year. There were shamrocks on the sleeves and we decided that coasters would be perfect for these!
I sent Dana a picture of the first finished St. Patrick’s Day pillow and she responded.
OMG Wendy I can’t believe it! I just love it! Can’t stop crying! Thank you.
Heartstrings stretched.
The other sweater is a Christmas sweater that, again, her father chose as his attire every holiday.
Dana wanted the largest size of pillow cover I could get from this large sized sweater. Making one 20×20 inch cover from the front and one from the back turned out beautifully.
As I sent the finished pillows off into the mail today back to Dana, I must admit that I was kind of emotional.
I was so honored that a complete stranger would allow and trust me to take care of her wonderful memories of her father.
I asked Dana if I could share her story. This is what she said:
Sure you can blog about “Grandpa’s holiday sweaters”. Over the last twenty years my parents came to my home to celebrate the different holidays and never did a year go by that grandpa did not wear his sweater. As the children got older they would kid about the sweaters. “Do you think grandpa will remember to wear his sweater this year or will he forget and wear a different one?”
He never forgot.
And when he passed away I immediately requested those sweaters. I decided to go on Etsy to see how we can all enjoy these precious sweaters and I found your website. It was hard to decide if we should leave the sweaters alone or not but when my son saw that you can make pillows with the sweaters he was sold. He wants to use the pillow after he sprays it with grandpa’s cologne and have sweet dreams of him and his grandpa.
Heartstrings broken. 🙂
~Wendy
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