The quilt has been hanging on the rack for at least five years, but the other night I wanted to look at it. There's a pattern I remember from Aunt Betty Lou's funeral. My dress was yellow and black. Aunt Orneda told mom it was too bright for a funeral. I was in third grade.



There's fabric from Mom's dresses and flannel from our pajamas.



Mom would work on the squares and when she ran out of pieces for the square, she would finish it with a similar color. When they were all stitched together, she'd have Dad bring in the "work horses" and stretch the quilt out and "quilt" it. I remember the rolls of batting, so soft and hours and hours of stitching. There are probably 10,000 or more tiny stitches. Our living room was filled with the quilt for several weeks. When it was done, us kids always wanted it - new and soft. Sometimes we'd have up to three quilts on our beds.

On October 17, 2011, at OzarksFirst.com it's written: "The Bolivar School District has now lost eight students in 17 months." That was after the death of three high school girls. Earlier in the year two other students died from cancer and another collapsed while out walking with a friend.

Again, last night, Bolivar lost another teen. This now makes nine in the past two years. Though I didn't know him, this one was a bit closer to home as one of my step-sons was close to his former girlfriend. My step-son wanted to go to the hospital to be of comfort to his friend and when we pulled into the parking lot, I was amazed at the number of teens and their parents outside the Emergency Room.

I first read about the accident on Facebook and at that time, no one knew who was involved or even how many were in the accident. The post said there were two people involved and a search was on for the second victim. I immediately called our two sons to hear their voices and make sure they were all right. It turned out that the Facebook post was wrong and only one person was involved.

I've never been personally affected by a teen's death, but last night, watching the teens cry for their friend and with their friends, I began to appreciate grief counseling at the schools for these kids.

Nine teens seems to be an awfully lot of kids to lose in two years for this very small town.

Lord, help me realize that quality time with my family is so much more important than how their rooms or my house looks.