Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: RED (02/01/18)
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TITLE: The Red Cardigan | Previous Challenge Entry
By Vicki J. Cypcar
02/08/18 -
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It was the winter of 1990 that I cradled Rebecca in my arms, and just looking at her face made my heart sing. On wintry days I would tend to her infant needs, I would sleep when she slept, curled up on the couch while wearing that same red cardigan as the baby monitor hummed.
With a husband in aviation we moved several times over the years, and the cardigan went with us.
In South Dakota there were some days Rebecca and I never left the apartment. There would be winter storm advisories, and the bitter cold would steal your breath away. Rebecca was a toddler and every day we had to watch a Disney movie while she drank from her sippy cup. She spent much of her days in one-piece button up pajamas, the kind with the feet in them. We would outstretch a blanket on the floor and pretend to have a picnic. If I wasn’t already wearing it, Rebecca would bring my cardigan over for me to wear, or drape it over me if I was dozing off while she played with Lego’s.
On the Texas plains the wind is untamed. In the winter months I would seek that same object of solace, that red cardigan hanging on the bedpost. Each day after Michael’s departure to the airport, I would finish a cup of coffee and bundle Rebecca up like an Eskimo child before strapping her in to her stroller. We would walk the streets of the subdivision as she pointed out all of the birds and shrieked with delight.
In Michigan I would take Rebecca to the town park along with Domino our Aussie dog. Rebecca would love to run the bases on the baseball field and always jump when she reached home plate. Domino would tirelessly chase after a tennis ball. Michigan’s snow was very picturesque with Charlie Brown snowflakes, which Rebecca liked to catch on her tongue. We would return to the car covered in that wonderful white stuff. Home we would go where I would make hot cocoa and slip into that same old cardigan - by which time it was looking aged around the edges…like me.
In the summer of 1996 we moved here to Tennessee, and Rebecca started kindergarten that fall. On misty mornings I would stand with her as she waited for the bus, while nestling her newly adopted Border collie puppy inside my cardigan. I would wave bye to her as the bus departed.
Years later I was pulling the ends of this tired cardigan the first time Rebecca drove out of the driveway… alone. And then in 2013 Rebecca embarked on a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Weekly I would carefully prepare re-supply packages for her in this tattered cardigan, while praying for her safe return.
The years have flown by marked with both happy and the sad times. I have cradled so many puppies while wearing this cardigan, and years later, I have had to bury some of them after their long and happy lives ended.
After my folks died, I carefully sifted through pictures of family history. Many tears have been wiped dry on the sleeves of this cardigan.
It’s been 28 years since I found this red cardigan in that Goody’s store in North Carolina. It’s now well worn, and not the prettiest thing you would ever see, but with age it has become all that more comfortable - and comforting.
Although it is unraveling as life goes on, I will never retire it. Rebecca already knows it is a legacy I will someday leave behind. But until then it is a part of me, even at this moment, as I type these sweet memories of days gone by.
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Blessings~
The story matches the warmth that the cardiigan has given you over the years. Well done.