Last Saturday was Rissa's graduation party! Clarie had a four hour open house set up for her daughter so that all of Rissa's friends and all of the neighbors could come and go and see all of her speech and swimming awards,..her academic awards, and her scholarship awards!! I don't know who was prouder,..her mom or me!!

All of us Aunties had to sit at our own little table and chat about Rissa and about how well she and done in school and how beautiful she is!! It is nice to sit down and be in agreement with everyone....cause we all think that Rissa has done a marvelous job with the first eighteen years of her life!!!

I FINALLY got to see Rissa's senior prom picture. She is just gorgeous in a bright red satin gown and her hair done in a braided uplift. The girl carried off that bright color with style and grace and a snow white wrist corsage of white roses! The white roses in her hair made her a picture of feminine beauty that took my breath away!! The handsome young man at her side topped off the whole picture perfectly. What Clarie and I might have missed in OUR early years,..Rissa's success and graduation has more than made up for!!

I gave the little girl great-grandma's old red T-Cross-quilt as a graduation present. It was made with an oriignal pattern almost one hundred years ago and has a story built into it. That old red quilt has crossed the Missisippi River and the Ohio River so many times that I think I have lost count of all of the tales behind it.

When I asked Rissa if she liked it and was it "O-K" as a graduation present, she smiled at me and said, "It's perfect. It is a part of our past."

The little girl is so right and her having the quilt is so right. The red T-cross-quilt is a symbol of our past, and Rissa is a living symbol of a hopeful future!