Karen Sturges was knitting five baby sweaters, one for each grandchild's future baby, when she was suddenly diagnosed with lymphoma. She did not have much longer to live.
As she dealt with the devastation of the diagnosis, one thing kept coming up.
"The thing that she was most worried about was finishing these sweaters," said her daughter Annie Gatewood, 53. "She was just distraught that she didn't think she was going to be able to finish."
Sturges worked on them until four days before she died in 2021. Gatewood and her sister held on to the two remaining unfinished sweaters, not sure what they would do. Neither one knew how to knit.
Then in the late summer of 2022, Gatewood, who lives in Harpswell, Maine, was matched with a "finisher" in Portland, Maine, named Sarah deDoes — now one of more than 1,000 volunteers who complete unfinished fiber arts projects for grieving loved ones through a group called Loose Ends.
Sarah deDoes finished knitting the two tiny sweaters, then handed them off to Gatewood in late October. The two met at deDoes's home in Portland.
"I saw her and burst into tears, because she looks like my mom," Gatewood said, explaining their similar look and manner, and that they were both of Danish descent.
The sweaters — soft, white acrylic wool with little owls across the front — were expertly knitted.