it was November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire that decimated the town of Paradise, completely. Severely damaged the nearby towns of Concow and Magalia. The fire that came just a few miles from this Hill. You might remember that Suzie Yonts commented on the blog while i was evacuated with the Goats and Talkie to the Gridley Fairgrounds. She had fled. Just her. Just her cat. Suzie is a weaver. They made it out and ended up near Davis, CA where she stayed alternately with family and friends. There were a couple of emails between us, and in one of the first exchanges i said something about how, in imagining mySelf in the same circumstance, which is impossible, really, i might be comforted by some scraps of cloth. Needle and thread. I asked about her weaving and told her how Jude had taught Us to make a very simple box loom. Her response was that there was just nothing IN her in the moment. Nothing. a few emails. and then one last week. She has a place of her own. No longer on someone's couch or in someone's spare room. She has a place. She said that in feeling like she has a place, she thought to hang something on one of the walls. Go get a nail.....but, there are no nails anymore. She, like so many, thousands of others, had lost everything. No plate or fork. Pot or pan. No nails. no hammer. Nothing.
zero
all these taken for granted things...dishes, cook ware, sheets, pillowcase, underwear, cat litter box, toothbrush, washcloth, towel, forks and spoons, a paring knife. Everything. She slowly finds these day to day necessities for living. But that she just in these last days, feels the Weaving self, still there.
So....i am wondering. There are Weavers who read here i think. Surely someone has a tapestry loom that is lying fallow?
How can we get one to her? Everything will be different, but a loom would rock her into a new life. Not the same. Not the one she loved. But one she can come to love as time goes.
Can We do this? It's a Big Ask, but i think We can. I hope we can?