Ages ago, my first real job after college, with my BA in English, was proofreading audit reports for an accounting firm in San Francisco. One of my friends there was a woman quite a bit older than me, Jean Curtis, who was the secretary to the senior partner. Soon, but not soon enough–proofreading audit reports was monstrously dull–I managed to get myself accepted into a graduate program and went off to the University of Illinois to study medieval literature.

A year later, I was engaged to be married to a fellow graduate student. I had kept in touch with Jean and I told her about the engagement. One day a package arrived in the mail, and I opened it to find this needlepoint pillow.

I already knew that needlepoint was a hobby of Jean’s. The pillow was signed with her initials and the date in a contrasting shade of yarn. The colors are faded now, but you can just see traces of the letters and numbers at the bottom of the left-hand border.

The design, which has an op-art feel, is wonderful. I still remember the wording of the note that Jean enclosed with it: “For a couple of modern medievalists.”

I still have the pillow (obviously) and it sits on a chair in my entry. A great many years have passed, but every time I see it, which is many times a day, I think of Jean Curtis.