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In May 2021, I noticed two ambulances parked outside the house of a neighbour. A couple in their 90s lived there. I had met them once in 2017 soon after we moved in. My husband and I had downsized and were finding it a slow process to get to know the new neighbours.
When I learned that the man from that house had died, I baked a sultana cake and brought it with me to visit his widow. My white-haired neighbour made me tea and told me of the fall which had led to her husband’s death. I enquired about the knitted bears and clowns stacked in baskets and propped around the walls of the room. She told me about the trauma bears she knitted for children in hospital and Alzheimer’s patients.
Weeks later, I asked her if she would teach me how to knit the bears. We fitted in three lessons before the 2021 Sydney lockdown. During the restrictions, the knitting brought me a special pleasure. I found it a soothing activity, almost meditative, a relief from the uncertainty of the pandemic.
The health orders meant I could not visit my neighbour for a final lesson. She tried to explain over the phone how to make the ears and draw in the neck, but I needed to see it done. In the end, when we were both fully vaccinated and the weather had warmed enough to sit outside, we met on her front porch.
Two weeks later, we celebrated the completion of the bears sitting on my deck in the September sunshine. Now my house boasts a growing basketful of colourful bears.
The pandemic and a neighbour willing to share her skills are to thank for my new-found knitting skills and a new friendship.
When I learned that the man from that house had died, I baked a sultana cake and brought it with me to visit his widow. My white-haired neighbour made me tea and told me of the fall which had led to her husband’s death. I enquired about the knitted bears and clowns stacked in baskets and propped around the walls of the room. She told me about the trauma bears she knitted for children in hospital and Alzheimer’s patients.
Weeks later, I asked her if she would teach me how to knit the bears. We fitted in three lessons before the 2021 Sydney lockdown. During the restrictions, the knitting brought me a special pleasure. I found it a soothing activity, almost meditative, a relief from the uncertainty of the pandemic.
The health orders meant I could not visit my neighbour for a final lesson. She tried to explain over the phone how to make the ears and draw in the neck, but I needed to see it done. In the end, when we were both fully vaccinated and the weather had warmed enough to sit outside, we met on her front porch.
Two weeks later, we celebrated the completion of the bears sitting on my deck in the September sunshine. Now my house boasts a growing basketful of colourful bears.
The pandemic and a neighbour willing to share her skills are to thank for my new-found knitting skills and a new friendship.