My brother-in-law, Sam, who passed away last month, came to crafting late in his life. His daughter Mary-Louise, was getting married in July of last year and decided pink tissue poms would be a great decoration for the tent and gazebo. Mary-Louise is excellent at creative ideas, a little less at execution of said ideas. She made a few before returning to school, but didn't make a dent in the 200 plus she needed to decorate.
In the meantime, my sister Elizabeth, Sam's wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy in February and then chemotherapy. Her recovery from surgery lasted several weeks and Sam was quite undone. Thankfully, he starting crafting. The man who had never heard of a tissue pom, diligently made poms every night and would report to Mary-Louise how many he had completed each day.
Mary-Louise had purchased pink and green tissue paper, but left her father strict instructions that he was not to mix colors. Somewhere around pom 175, Sam let Mary-Louise know that he thought the solid colors were kind of boring and that the mixed poms were coming out awfully cute. No, Mary-Louise reiterated, one color only. Despite his newly-developed sense of pom style, he returned to making solid poms.
The results of his crafting were fabulous. He kept busy during a very stressful time. My sister fully recovered and was finished with chemotherapy in time for the July wedding. The poms looked wonderful. The multi-color poms were mysteriously misplaced by the wedding planner. And a 58-year-old man learned to make tissue poms for his daughter's wedding.
The poms really showed up in the photos. Remind me to tell you about that darling brooch bouquet Mary-Louise made and carried.
In fact, when daughter number three got married last October (yes, it was a big year at their house), Sam tried to convince the more subtly-styled Margaret that poms would be a great addition to her decorations as well. Apparently he had found his craft calling. She declined, so Sam was left to busy his hands writing checks for said wedding.
Sam's legacy to me will be the wonderful family he created and adored with all his heart. And those wonderful poms. I'm sure the funeral home wondered why his girls insisted on including a tissue pom with the display of flowers.
Sam and his family at daughter # 3's wedding in October, including new granddaughter Sophia.
Oh Caroline. This is so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. What a sweet memory for a daddy to leave his girls. I'm so sorry for your family's loss.
Posted by: Jona | February 03, 2012 at 01:42 PM
Sweet, sweet memories.
Posted by: Michele C | February 03, 2012 at 02:38 PM
What a beautiful post about a dad's contribution to his daughter's wedding. I had my dad learn to cross-stitch (mid-80's was all about cross-stitching) so that he could help make the bird seed holders that I wanted.
Just today I was looking at photos of brooch bouquets for my daughter's September wedding. I'm looking forward to your post about this.
Posted by: Michele | February 03, 2012 at 03:15 PM
Oh Caroline, I'm so sorry for your family's loss. What a beautiful post, and such beautiful weddings too. I am so glad you all have such wonderful memories of him and he was able to do something so wonderful for his daughters that will be remembered forever. Congratulations to your sister too.
Posted by: * TONYA * | February 03, 2012 at 03:28 PM
Wow... brought tears to my eyes. Sam would have had a good chuckle over this. Makes me smile just thinking about it. Love you sister for such a tribute to our brother-in-law.
Posted by: Cynthia Newman | February 03, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Caroline, this is wonderful! I was sitting here crying while reading it.... I will never forget those poms. He was so proud of them, as I was proud of him for coping so well during that hard time.
Posted by: A Facebook User | February 05, 2012 at 04:45 PM
What a terrific tribute, Caroline, to one of our favorite men and his family! Loved it!
AF
Posted by: AFPJ | February 05, 2012 at 05:49 PM
Such a beautiful post...Sam and his beautiful smile will never be forgotten. His legacy will live on and on!
Chris Turner
Posted by: Chris Turner | February 05, 2012 at 07:04 PM
I loved this story so much.
Posted by: Jessica Jones | February 06, 2012 at 01:02 PM
These pictures are absolutely breath taking! What a treasured keepsake for all of you! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Cindy McFarland | February 06, 2012 at 03:14 PM
that was really adorable, caroline.....as i sit here with wet cheeks....
Posted by: jan crowe | February 06, 2012 at 10:51 PM
Wow, Sam sure did a fabulous job on those poms! What a great man Sam was. This is just one of the many examples to show how much he loved his family.
Posted by: Jessica Sandfort | February 08, 2012 at 10:15 PM
This is such a sweet story. What great memories he left for his girls.
Posted by: Lauren | February 09, 2012 at 06:26 PM
This is so wonderful and touching- thank you for sharing such a special memory. He sounds like an amazing man!
Posted by: mo | February 17, 2012 at 10:19 PM
Lovely post - very tearful though. How beautiful the wedding looked. Those are very specil poms, a specila memory and a special man.
Thanks for your post! love your blog and all your creative ideas!
Linda
Posted by: Linda Leyble | March 23, 2012 at 04:08 PM
So sorry to hear about your BIL. I hope that those poms will forever remind his family of the LOVE he has for them. How precious is this story.
It was so good to meet you at ALT.
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