THE SARONG COVERLET

One of the sarong covers in my house
Quite recently, my friend Jeannine who comes from Australia asked me to make a sarong bed-cover for her queen size bed and I couldn't resist telling her the story of another coverlet that had left for Down Under. Let me share that story with you.

 One of my comforter covers is already in Australia.
Some twelve years ago I made friend with an Aborigine lady artist who had been invited  here in Kuching by Atelier Sarawak. Later, her work, painted on silk, was later displayed at the Petronas Tower Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.
Right away we stroke a friendship and I invited her to our country home where she spent a couple of days.
Her bed was dressed with one of my sarong comforter covers and she saw all of them in the other rooms. She asked if I would make one for her, and she went back to Australia with it.

 My new friend was seriously physically handicapped; she had spent her childhood between foster homes and hospital rooms, mostly the latter. Despite such a confine life, she had managed to meet her soul mate whom she had married, and against all medical advice, she had carried a baby and delivered a beautiful and healthy daughter.

 Sadly I lost touch with her and, shame on me, I simply can't recall her name. The annoying sign of getting a bit old.
Her husband kept in touch with me a few times on her behalf, telling me how her health was fast declining and that she could not even type a message. She wanted to come back to Sarawak with her husband for a longer visit with us. Instead she did not even make it to the opening of the Petronas exhibition. The the messages stopped.

 I am so happy she left with what I had made for her and too, some beautiful fabric we had bought together for her to have a special dress made for Christmas. The fabric was a copper colour satin; it looked amazing on her brown skin.

I have a great love for batik sarongs, especially for those with a botanical or a Sarawak ethnic design. I don't think I'll ever tire of them or of the memory of a friend whose silhouette I have stiched in the tapestry of my life. 

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