Every child needs a friend, even if that friend is simply a teddy bear. That was the basis for Knitting without Borders, created 2 years ago by my dear friend Loredana. She started the project after hearing how an African girl, orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and dying of AIDS herself, had asked to be buried with her teddy bear, her only friend. Since then Loredana has sent nearly 3,000 teddys to hospitalized children all over the globe. ‘I silently hope that each stitch will retain my love and secretly wish that each bear will deliver a cure. I knit, while quietly dreaming that each bear will whisper to a child: “You’re precious! I’m here to make you smile.”‘ she says. Loredana is one of the band of amazing women in my grief group. We’re the living proof that love never dies. Many of us have had contact with our loved ones since they’ve passed. Loredana’s beloved husband Enzo died of lung cancer in November 2013. He wasn’t a religious man, she says. But in his last months he started seeing angels in the room and they talked to him helping him understand many things. “What do they say?” she asked. He replied: “The little things we do are very important. The angels smile when you make the bears for the children. Keep putting love into everything you do.”

To knit a bear for a hospitalized child or to learn more visit http://www.knittingwithoutborders.jigsy.com