South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Quilt weaves together memorials to COVID-19 victims
Diane Canney has never seen anything like theCOVID-19 pandemic. Neither has her 95-year-old mother, Phyllis Leidtke.
Canney lives inVirginia, nearWashington, D.C. She is used to making regular visits to see her mother at John KnoxVillage in Pompano Beach. Lately, she has been doingZoom video calls to stay in touch instead.
This year, instead of a birthday gift, Leidtke asked her daughter if therewas something she could do to make a difference in the world. Shewanted to see if therewas a gesture that could be made to honor peoplewhose lives have been affected byCOVID-19.
“I said tomy daughter that, since she always wants to givemegifts for my birthday, and I need nothing, we should instead do something productive for people,” Leidtke said.
Canney reminded her mother that theywere both inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt. That effort createdwhat has been referred to as the largest sculpture in history, weighing in at 54 tons.
“I suggestedmaybe we could do something with knitting and creating something like that,” Canney said. “I’m very artisticmyself, and it could be something where people couldwork on it whether or not they have any skills. That’swhere this idea came from.
“Mymom’s birthdaywas inAugust, and the quilt projectwas her gift,” she said. “So I started then, and I began to think about how I could do this. I decided the project should stand for unity, remembrance and hope to honor frontlineworkers and thosewho died.”
Once she got the main themes figured out, Canney decided that the quilt should commemorate the memory of thosewho have died. She alsowanted to thank the first responders,
nurses and doctors.
“This is a terrible, terrible pandemic,” Leidtke said. “In allmy 95 years, I’ve really not seen anything quite like this.
“People tend to forget about major losses. People have generally forgotten about theHolocaust, World War II, and evenVietnam. So Dianewanted something permanent where people will remember our lost friends. Shewants to have something physical and a source of comfort in theway that the quilt feels.”
Although the purpose of the quilt is to remember thosewhohave died from the pandemic, the main theme is a positive one: “TakingHope to aCommunityNearYou.”
Canney decided that the quilt should start out small by forming theword “hope.”
She started with 10-inch squares. The first quilt would have 32 panels, with her mother creating and designing the first one. Her mother elicited help from other residents at John KnoxVillage.
A national effort
Living nearWashing
ton, D.C. has given Canney access to theNationalMall. So she lobbied and used persistence to obtain a location there inwhich the first incarnation of what she nowcalls theHonor Quilt was displayed.
“It took a lot of magic to get a permit on theNational Mall,” she said. “I hadmy mother sendmeasmany panels as possible from Florida.”
Canney put together a
ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial to display the first stage of the quilt, along with musicians and speakers. The event took place in late October andwas streamed live on Facebook. She made sure therewas social distancing and masks in use. The ceremonywas held in the evening, with lit candles on theMall steps and a cloudy orange sunset in the background. The illustratedword“HOPE” stood out like a beacon in the dim light.
Giving is in their DNA
Canney and Leidtke attribute their sense of giving to their mothers.
“The idea of giving back I got frommy mother from a very early age,” Canney said. “She always said I would give away more things than Iwould keep. In Florida, I remember a homeless person coming to our house. My mother and Iwould take food and clothing and give them to her. Momalways thought of the homeless simply as human beings.
“I thinkmymom’s sense of humanity came fromher growing up in the Bronx, NewYork,” she said. “She lived through some really challenging times. Rather than being kind of hardened by that, she learned fromit. Shewas very bright and alwaysworked hard.
And she’s always instilled a great sense of social responsibility inme.”
Leidtke recognizes the giving nature of her daughter.
“Diane has always been giving. I mean, if somebody is ill, she immediately whisks them to the hospital and pays the bill. She’s generous to a fault,” she said.
Looking back one generation further, Leidtke related her sense of generosity to her ownmother.
“My mother and our familywere poor growing up,” shed. “We had nothing. Wewere even onwelfare. And therewas a box at home where shewould put a penny, or a dime or a nickel, just for somebody whohad less.”
Visit
covid19ushonorquilt. org or facebook.com/
Covid19USHonorQuilt. To contribute a panel to theHonor Quilt, visit
covid19ushonorquilt.org/ submit-a-panel.