Up-Cycled Love

At the beginning of last month, I found myself in my closet, holding on to Torey’s clothes he had on when he passed away. I shed so many tears, felt the urge to hold on to his torn-up shirt and jeans. His Grandfather had gifted Torey the shirt – Granddaddy used to wear it often and during one of our visits to Texarkana, he was clearing out some stuff in his closet. He handed the shirt to Torey and told him to use it. T-Mitch was like, “For real!? Because this shirt is so DOPE!” The memory always makes me smile because they exchanged quite a few chuckles that day in the house off Sanderson Lane.

After composing myself and drying my tears, I laid the material on my bed and decided to up-cycle the material into something useful. Torey’s jeans were his only pair that didn’t have holes in ‘em so he used them frequently for work. When he wasn’t working, he’d be in his “holy” jeans. I knew T-Mitch would be all for up-cycling the material.

I YouTubed how-to videos and decided a purse would do. Initially I wanted to take on this challenge even though my sewing skills are less than average … okay, non-existent! I figured I’d check on purchasing a sewing machine, but after Googling and Amazoning, I decided the investment wouldn’t be worth it because I honestly don’t have a passion for being a Suzy-homemaker or whatever. Instead, I took to Facebook to see if anyone would let me borrow their machine. I was blown away by the number of people who offered their machine to me – thank you SO much!

After thinking about it some more, I decided it would be better to leave this task in the hands of a more skilled seamstress (I can’t imagine how bad I would have messed up and possibly even ruin the limited amount of material!). One of Torey’s favorite bartenders/waitresses, Brianne, from Twin Peaks saw my message and she messaged me. Brianne said her Nana Myra, is an amazing seamstress who used to make Halloween costumes for her and her brother – she showed me a picture and I was comforted by the offer.

Brianne also went on to tell me that Torey appeared in her dream the night before… he was in a car and the window was up and he was all smiles. Brianne was with Shada, a dear friend who used to wait on Torey, too. Both were in tears at being able to see Torey and she said all he did was smile at them. Brianne woke up and felt actual tears on her face and after she saw my Facebook message she was floored. I was equally in awe and knew in my spirit that this was the right call. I’m pretty sure Brianna and Nana Myra would agree, too.

I rushed to the post office and sent Brianne the material since she lives in Waco – I couldn’t wait to see what was going to become of the material!

A few weeks went by and Brianne sent these images to me to show Nana’s progress:

Amazing, right? Well Brianne drove all the way from Waco last Friday to bring the finished product. We met at Twin Peaks in Lewisville (my first time out in a public environment since the COVID-19 quarantine!) and Shada joined us, too, with her handsome son, Quinn! Simply amazing. Lo and behold, here is the finished product:

I can’t tell you how happy this makes me, or how much comfort it brings to me. As soon as Das saw it, he said, “New baseball purse, Ma!” and yes, I will be carrying this around every ballpark from here on out. Speaking of ballparks, Das’ summer baseball season starts on Torey’s birthday this month – and to be honest we’re a little torn-up about this because the tourney is in Tomball and I won’t be able to make it down there. Das will be going to the tournament with our dear friends, The Martin Family, and I’m so thankful for them! I know one thing is for sure – Torey won’t be missing these games!

Thank you, Brianne and Nana Myra! Many blessings to you and your sweet gesture – this is a priceless gift and I will treasure it forever.