The Quilter's Legacy (43 page)

She turned back to face the quilt, her grief forgotten. She had found the New York Beauty at last, and with it, a small portion of her mother's history. For years and years to come, the New England Quilt Museum would share her mother's quilt with the world, and soon, also, the story of the woman whose hopes and dreams and longings still lingered in the soft fabric, in the gentle colors, in the intricate stitches, like the last fading notes of a song.

“My mother made this quilt,” said Sylvia, and though Claire regarded her skeptically, Sylvia smiled, knowing that in a moment, Claire would turn over the quilt to reveal the initials and date Eleanor Lockwood Bergstrom had embroidered so many years ago, as if she had known this day would come.