Audrey Christenson donated one of the last afghans her mother knitted to the local Alzheimer’s support group.
Her mother, Mildred Elizabeth Puffer Kohl, passed away in 1991, after years of suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Christenson, who helped foster more than 200 families in her time in Mount Vernon, noted that her mother was a grandmother to many of those children over the course of the years.
Kohl was 81 when she died, spending the last three months of her life at Hallmark Care Center in Mount Vernon.
As Christenson was cleaning out an attic, she found one of the last afghans her mother was working on before she passed away.
“You can start to see some of the irregularities a normal knitter wouldn’t have made that get made in portions of the afghan,” Christenson said.
Susan Gradwell, a representative for the Iowa Greater chapter for the Alzheimer’s Association, noted that the afghan will be one of the items featured in the Memories in the Making auction in November for the organization.
“Art and music are two of the areas of the brain that aren’t impacted by Alzheimer’s, so there are a number of people who were involved with playing music or making art before being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s who still make beautiful pieces throughout their illness,” Gradwell said. “This afghan will be one of the pieces we will feature in this year’s auction at the event.”
Christenson noted even after her mom had given up knitting as Alzheimer’s had advanced, her mom still loved handling balls of yarn, due to the calming effect the hobby had been in her life.
Afghan donated to local Alzheimer’s support group
September 9, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.