My Amazing New Friend, Lella…

Nettie Young
From the Series, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend: Milky-Way, 1971.
Cotton, 88 x 77″

The day before we all left Paris, Costa’s very sweet friend, Lella gave each of us these little red strings with a brass disk with the word “merci” stamped on the front that could be worn either as a bracelet or as a toggle on your purse.

She had known me only a day and I felt so honored to know such a sweet, generous woman; clearly I had made a new friend and was and am super happy about it.

Upon further investigation I learned that the proceeds of the sale of each toggle went towards helping stamp out poverty, so get in on the action by purchasing one for yourself at Merci.