Mary Jane and I shared our faith, our practical view of life and our love of quilting for over 30 years. Though we were often separated by many miles she was one of my closest friends.
In 1997 I was invited to teach quilting in Madrid, Spain for an organization similar to Christian Women’s Club here in the US. At that time Europeans had a strong interest in Patchwork but there were very few instructors or even instruction books in Spanish. All of my teaching materials had to be translated into Spanish. I sent an S.O.S. to Mary Jane, who was living in Indiana. She immediately agreed to help prepare the written instructions and accompany me to Spain as my translator and fellow teacher. It was wonderful to see how Mary Jane related so comfortably to the women of Spain. We later made three additional trips to teach quilting for another women’s ministry in Figueres, a city in northern Spain.
When Phill and Mary Jane returned from Guatemala and were living in the Wheaton area I was caring for my elderly mother in my Wheaton home. I had the crazy idea to make a quilt for every missionary family supported by my church. Again Mary Jane jumped on board. One day a week she would come to my house and we would go through fabric in my studio. As we planned quilts I would be quick to say that we should go to the store to buy one more blue fabric to finish the quilt design but thirty Mary Jane would tell me to keep looking because she knew we would find something that would work. At the end of the day she would take home quilt kits to sew during the week. She continued to help me sew quilts even after she moved to Florida. Over the four years we worked on the project we completed 164 quilts.
During this period Mary Jane also helped me care for my mother. After moving to Florida she flew back to Wheaton twice to care for Mom so my husband and I could enjoy a little time away. That is a true friend.
Last February my husband and I visited Mary Jane and Phill in their new home. While we were looking at all of her planned quilting projects MJ told me if I wanted to start making quilts for the missionary families again she would love to help. With all the quilting she wanted to do for herself she was willing to help with a service project. That was Mary Jane, the Lord’s servant and my friend. She was a blessing to my heart.
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