TanyaL

I don't know the figures for how many people die in hospitals compared to how many die in other places, and of those dying in hospitals, how many of those hospitals are large. My Father-in-law died in a large hospital. The morgue attendant who came for the body asked me to step out of the room. He drew the curtain around the bed, transferred the body to a gurney and wheeled the gurney out to the hallway. When he came out to the hallway I asked where the body was because the gurney looked as empty as it had when he went into the room. The gurney had a hidden shelf that the body was put on. The sheet hung down to the top of the wheels and covered the shelf. It looked exactly like every other gurney being pushed around the hospital or sitting in a hallway. There was no way you could tell a body was being transported - no one could be upset by a dead body going through the hallways. The funeral home attendants picked up the bodies from the hospital morque, not from the individual rooms. I would imagine that this is the procedure in most large hospitals. If he had had a quilt to cover him in this passage to the morque no one would have known or seen it. They were very careful of visitors and patients feelings when they arranged this transport method.

Deborahlees

I can not believe the outstanding response to this thread. I am the quilter that started this.....For whatever reason the concept of a "Passage Quilt" struck a very strong cord with me.

Perhaps due to almost 30 years in the medical field, perhaps because I have buried my grandparents, my parents, my only brother and my husband....perhaps because I am 'older' and am closer to the other end of the line of life.....or simply because this is something I can do and have the time to do it.

My intent is to give to the living who are on their final journey in life. To give thenm some joy and peace, and some color and warmth.....If that is all my quilts do....then I have been successful.

If this quilt covers them to the mortuary, providing others some comfort....wonderful
If this quilt covers their coffin to comfort those left behind....wonderful...
If this quilt goes with them to the Lord.....wonderful
If this quilt is handed to their surviving family and when they hold it they can smell and feel
their loved ones.....wonderful.....

These quilts have no limits they are filled with love and like a butterfly will bring happiness and love where ever it lands.....what more can I ask.....