Willing to Knit and Able to Stitch...

"Work more nicely," the teacher tells me. I grew up in a old fashioned small town in the south east of the Netherlands. The catholic school, where we had to stand in the line, hand in hand with one person from the same sex, before we were allowed to enter the school, was really outdated. The boys got handicraft in a very manly way. They could be bulky and build cars. But not for us girls, we had to knit and stitch. I hated it and the teacher knew about that. Calling me clumsy is a mistake. Well, I am but not on these kind of things. Let's honestly say I'm neat but left handed.


"She's is not capable in fine working with her hands," she told my mother. My mother asked her to give me some time and decided to practice the needed skills at home. Besides reading every day she made me knit and stitch. I hated it and my mother knew. But she did one amazing thing: she bought the needed accessories for a left handed person. Rare to be found back in those days, but with her determination she founded what was needed for me.

The teacher that I really disliked, because she seemed too harsh for my sensitive soul, has recently died. The lady who told me: "Not able lies on the cemetry, not wanting next." With that adage she teached me something...