Stitching Together Lives from Fabric

by Fran Withrow 08.2024

When my neighbor Ruthie came over and saw the handmade quilt hanging in my hall, she said, “Fran, I have a great book you need to read.” That weekend I tore through “Quilt of Souls,” a memoir by Phyllis Biffle Elmore, and it is indeed a great book. 

Elmore was born in Detroit, one of eight children whose parents were overwhelmed trying to support their large family. Finally they sent Elmore to live with her grandparents in rural Alabama. It was 1957 and she was just four years old.

Elmore quickly adjusted to farm life and became especially close to her grandmother, Lula Horn. Grandma Lula was born on a plantation in 1883 and grew up “in the shadow of slavery.” But she learned to sew as a child, and as an adult she creates quilts to tell stories of the courageous women in her life. As Grandma Lula stitches strips of cloth together, she regales her granddaughter with tales of Black women and men who suffered, struggled, died, and survived during those early post-slavery years.

Elmore listens as her grandmother takes clothing worn by people who have “gone to glory” and weaves them together to make “quilts of souls.” She makes them for neighbors who will then have a memento of their loved ones to curl up under at night. She sews for those who are alone and sorrowing. And she makes one for her granddaughter as well. 

The stories abound, and Elmore eagerly attends to her grandmother’s tales throughout the years she spends in Alabama. There is Ella, Grandma Lula’s older sister, who stands up to her employer with devastating consequences.. There is Cooter, who daily toils heavily as a washwoman and is beaten by her husband at night. And Grandma Lula remembers that her own mother experienced horrendous loss when her enslaver sold three of her babies. Lula still feels her mother’s deep, lifelong grief.

People give Grandma Lula bags of their loved ones’ clothes, and she cuts out strips to hand-sew her quilts. More quilts are made, more stories told and saved. Through them, Elmore learns the history of her ancestors, friends, and neighbors. She learns about the racism, sexism and injustice that seep through everyday life.

Yet Grandma Lula is not bowed down by the oppression she has seen. “But if you’s carryin’ hate, the good can’t come through the door,” she explains. Ever the optimist, she repeatedly reminds Elmore that “trouble don’ las’ always.”  And she expresses love for her granddaughter repeatedly. “I loves your heart and yo’ liver too,”she says, a sentiment she shares with everyone, even those deemed unloveable.

“Quilt of Souls” is chock full of richly drawn characters, like Miss Sugar, Miss Jubilee, and Sheriff Sugg. Elmore brings these characters into vibrant life, abundant with the glorious accents and idioms of the deep south. It’s a gift to read this writer’s memories of her grandmother, and to think how wise she was to preserve them, like a treasured quilt, in this lovely book.