Darn

I wrote this story in memory of my Grandmother.

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Darn

The sound of the alarm going off awoke me and I stared through blurry eyes at the numbers on the clock.  Quickly I rolled out of bed, dressed, ate, and ran out the door.

After arriving at work I stopped to glance in a mirror just to make sure everything was on and where it belonged.  My hair was combed, teeth brushed, all the buttons on my blouse were done up, my shoes were a pair, and my socks were the same color and the same size.  For appearance sake everything looked fine. But, what no one knew was inside my right shoe I had a hole in my sock.  It didn’t show so no one would know, and when I get home I’d simply mend it.
 
There are two ways to mend a sock.  I know what you may be thinking, fix it or throw it away, but that isn’t what I said.  There are two ways to MEND a sock.  The first way is the fastest.  You hold the torn edges between your fingers, take a needle and thread and whipstitch across the top and tie it.  It takes less than two minutes to mend a sock this way, and you’re ready to put it on and walk away.

You can tell a person who whipstitches their socks by the way they walk.  A person who whipstitches walks down the hall and stops every 4 or 5 feet pulling their foot halfway out of their shoe, they wiggle their toes around trying to find some kind of comfort.  They do this all the way down the hall all day long until they get home and take that whipstitched sock off their foot.

Fortunately there is another way to mend socks, unfortunately it’s almost a lost art, it’s called darning.

I learned how to darn socks from my grandmother. I remember a weekend visit I spent with my grandparents.  Grandmother had promised to take me shopping after the chores were finished.  With everything cleaned I thought we were ready to go when grandmother took out her sewing box and a small bag of socks. I watched her take a sock and put a wooden ball inside of it that opened up and exposed a hole that was inside the sock.  Needle in hand she began to weave a thread back and forth across the top of the sock.  Watching and waiting this seemed to take forever.  I looked at her and said, “I know a way that’s faster, may I help you mend?”  She looked at me with loving eyes and a ginger smile, then answered, “Yes you can mend the mate to the sock I’m darning."  I held the sock tightly in my fingers, and made a fast whipstitch across the top and tied it.  My prize in had I continued to wait and watch.   Finally grandmother was through with hers.  I smiled boastfully and said, “My way is faster."  She replied with words of wisdom and a wonderful smile, “Lori, I always buy your grandfather the same size socks, would you take these two socks and fold them?”.  I put the socks together but stopped and looked quizzingly at my grandmother and said, “You must have made a mistake when you bought this pair because the sock I mended is one inch smaller that its mate."  She chuckled softly and said, “Lori, there are two ways to mend a sock."  The first way is the fastest, it takes very little time or care, but when it’s finished there is shrinkage and it isn’t very comfortable to wear.  The other way to mend a sock takes more of your time as you carefully weave new threads back into the sock where the old ones have been lost or worn out.  It takes longer to mend a sock this way but when you're finished the sock stretches to allow for growth and it's comfortable to wear.

Everywhere we look around us there are worn, torn people.  People who have weathered  trials in life and have been left tattered.  There are families and marriages that have been cut and are pulling apart.  All of these worn torn people are in need of repair, and there are two ways to mend people.  The first way is the fastest.  It takes very little of your time or care.  You simply hold them briefly where they're torn and run a quick stitch through their lives.  However, when you’re through there is shrinkage and it isn’t very comfortable.  The other way to mend people takes more time and love. You must carefully weave new threads of understanding, compassion, friendship, and love back into their lives where the old ones have worn out or lost.  When you finished their lives stretch to allow for growth and it's very comfortable.
There are two ways to mend and two kinds of menders, one is a whipstitcher, the other is a weaver.
Growing up and growing older I remember and love my grandmother for the lessons in life she taught me.

Lori Weidenbacher