Where to begin to tell you about my great-aunt Gracie. In a way she got slighted in this process precisely because she meant so much to me – I made her quilt first before I officially started the project and the blog. Making the “Joy of Cooking (for Gracie)” was what got the whole project going. So I’m taking the opportunity while working on her square in her mother Grace’s quilt to tell Gracie’s story.

Encaustic monoprints, book pages, interfacing, machine sewing; 8″ x 8″

Gracie has been gone for over 20 years but I’m still getting emotional remembering her. Gracie and her husband Normand (Bacon) lived a couple of blocks over from the house I grew up in. They had one son, Buttons (no idea where that nickname came from either) and two grandchildren, Randy and Gena. I was friends with all of my cousins but was close friends with both Gena and Randy and spent a lot of time over at their house (also just a few blocks away) and Gracie’s. Gracie had a big backyard that backed up on “the Ledges” which to kids in Veazie counted for woods. Gracie hosted many of the family get togethers there.

If you looked up grandmother in the dictionary you’d find a picture of Gracie Bacon. Actually, she kinda reminded me of Mrs. Claus. Her house always seemed to smell like cookies. And she made rootbeer, so there was always rootbeer and cookies at her house, what more could you ask for?  She had a great laugh and a warm heart.  I always felt a connection to Gracie, in part because we both had migraines.

Buttons died young and the light kind of went out of Gracie. Children should not die before their parents, it’s against the natural order. Shortly thereafter my older sister had premature twins. She needed a lot of help with them and true to the normal ways of the family everyone kicked in. Gracie was able to lose herself a bit with helping out before she passed herself not long after. To add to my list of adages, there should always be babies at funerals.