Blanket statement

Lolita Harper

On Sept. 17, Aaron Abraham of Costa Mesa was called to duty.

His mission was to help organize a nationwide campaign to memorialize

the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Armed with a kind heart

and natural leadership abilities, Abraham helped recruit hundreds of

Americans to join in creating the Memorial Quilt and Tour.

“I would love to say that this is fun, but it isn’t,” Abraham said. “I

see it more as a duty.”

His command post is a modest room on the second story of the First

United Methodist Church on 19th Street in Costa Mesa. From there, the

59-year-old oversees dozens of Orange County volunteers who gather

pictures of victims, convert those images to cloth and sew them into

three enormous quilts designed like flags.

He is a robust man with a commanding presence, but he is not strong

enough to escape the quilt’s powerful effect. Abraham said he screens

every victim’s picture, and knows their names and faces by memory. The

happy expressions on their faces contradict the harsh reality that they

are gone forever.

“Each of these people are dead,” he reminded. “They are gone because

of a senseless act.”

Volunteer Tom Goggin of Yorba Linda said it is hard to come to grips

with the fact that each of the 2,600 images on the quilt represent their

own, individual tragedy.

“It’s an eerie feeling,” Goggin said. “It’s a very eerie feeling.”

Hundreds of pictures were strewn across a large wooden table in the

converted classroom. Together they made up half of a 26-foot stripe. A

total of 39 stripes -- 13 for each flag -- will be sewn into

19-by-26-foot quilts. The pictures have corresponding red, white or blue

backgrounds. On the table, they look like the makings of a large

scrapbook, but when put into perspective, the flag design will be

apparent, Abraham said.

Nicole Miller’s smiling face stood out in her row.

Miller was killed Sept. 11 while working on ill-fated United Airlines

Flight 93. She was used to taking care of others while they traveled; now

her final cross-country trip is in the hands of Goggin and other local

volunteers.

Once finished, the three flags will tour the country on their way to

New York City for the one-year anniversary of the attacks. Abraham hopes

to have the project complete by June 15, and the three flags will start

their individual tours from Southern California, San Francisco and

Seattle on July 4.

Goggin, who works for an air freight porter, will arrange the

transportation for the quilts.

“I can’t knit, I can’t sew, but I figured there was something I could

do to help,” said Goggin, 54.

Although Goggin is stitch-challenged, his wife is not. She is one of

the 500 national volunteers who thread and sew the final cloth images

into the enormous quilted masterpiece. Goggin said his wife enlisted him.

Volunteer Ralph Short was also drawn into the project by his wife’s

influence. The 77-year-old Costa Mesa man said he was out walking his dog

when he saw a quilting flier. He thought his wife, who loves quilting,

would be interested and subsequently met Abraham.

“It was just a fluke that I knocked on the door with my funny dog and

here it turned into this,” Short said.

Volunteers say it was more than a fluke. After all, it was Short -- a

50-year member of the First United Methodist Church -- who arranged for

the project’s headquarters.

“I just think this is such a marvelous and creative idea,” Short said.

“We have such enthusiastic volunteers who were moved enough to honor the

victims of this horrible tragedy. And it’s all coming together in Costa

Mesa.”

FYI

For more information on the Memorial Quilt project or to volunteer,

call (949) 650-2444.