“Kerry? Are you okay?”

All the woman on the phone had done was identify herself and say she was calling from Charlottetown on behalf of Quilts of Valour — and silence answered her.

Kerry Howarth was still on the line in her Cardigan, P.E.I., home, just overcome with emotion. She had seen photos and videos of quilt presentations on Facebook so she knew what the phone call meant.

“They were giving them to elderly veterans, and members who had been to Afghanistan, and I never, ever imagined I’d get one,” Howarth said. “It was very emotional.”

A friend in her church who is a member of the Red Clay Quilting Guild in Souris, P.E.I., saw Howarth and her late husband leading the local Remembrance Day parades, and nominated her to receive a quilt.

Howarth, whose parents were both in the military, started with the reserves in 1975, then joined the military in 1976 as a clerk. She deployed to Israel in 2003, received a promotion to sergeant a year later, then in 2006, was released from the military for medical reasons.

“When I think of the circumstances around my release, it was not a great way to finish my military career,” admitted Howarth, who got her quilt in 2022. “To receive this quilt as a form of recognition is really significant.”

Around the time Howarth left the military in 2006, another woman was getting involved with it in an unexpected way.

In 2006, an Edmonton woman named Lezley Zwaal made several quilts for members of the Canadian Armed Forces who were recovering in the local hospital from injuries sustained on deployment in Afghanistan.

Zwaal gave the quilts to the three young men as a way of thanking them for their service, unprepared for the impact meeting them and hearing their stories would have on her.

Seeing their emotional reaction to the gift of a handmade quilt, Zwaal wanted to create a way for any military member, retired or active, who was injured or ill as a result of their service, to receive a quilt.

From those three quilts came a national volunteer organization whose name has the power to render people speechless: Quilts of Valour.

Fulfilling a need
Retired military nurse Lisa Compton, of Paradise, N.L., is a vice-president with Quilts of Valour, the fabric procurement coordinator, and the regional coordinator for Newfoundland and Labrador. She did six deployments to Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013, and was working at the hospital in Kandahar when some of the quilts arrived.

“It was a big deal to me to wrap up our patients in one of these quilts and send them on their journey back home,” she said. “As a nurse, you didn’t have follow-up, you didn’t see them later on the ward.”

After 20 years of service, Compton, whose husband Danny also served in the Armed Forces, developed PTSD.

“I was so sick, I couldn’t leave my house,” she recalls. “Sometimes I couldn’t leave the basement because the noises would bother me so much.”

Getting a service dog helped get her out of the house, and a suggestion from her therapist gave her a place to go: the quilting shop for classes.

“I made arrangements to have a seat with my back to the wall and I was allowed to bring my service dog,” Compton said.

She started feeling better so, with support from her husband and service dog, she began presenting quilts.

“That was a big deal for me. I was presenting these quilts to veterans who were where I was a year or so before,” Compton said. “It fulfilled a need as a nurse to do something for someone, and I could say to them, ‘Nobody would have bet a penny on me and look, I’m here giving you your quilt today.’”

Unique works of art
To date, Quilts of Valour has given out about 21,000 quilts, and the process is largely unchanged from the day Lezley Zwaal presented her first in Edmonton. Volunteers make a quilt for a veteran or serving member of the military who has been nominated because they served in a combat or a peacekeeping mission and became ill or injured as a result. Only veterans who have been honourably discharged are eligible to get a Quilt of Valour.

A person or guild creates each quilt, making every one a unique work of art; often incorporating the recipient’s hobbies, favourite colours, and even local geographic details into the design.

In 2021, the organization offered a fabric print of a poppy painting by Amherst, N.S. artist Patrick Milner to be a centrepiece in quilts. Compton made a thank-you quilt for Milner, using that panel of his painting. “I’ve slept under it,” said Milner, who donated the use of the image to Quilts of Valour, “but it’s a work of art.” 

The organization provides the backing and the batting, but the makers design their own quilt. Donations and sponsorships ($250 for an entire quilt) are welcome.

“While quilting is a huge part of our volunteer group, you don’t have to be a quilter to play a role in our organization,” said Compton. “We have a huge need for volunteers because we are coast to coast to coast.”

There are 2,000 quilts ready to go, but not enough volunteers to make the presentations, and the greatest need for quilters and presenters is in the Atlantic provinces.

Compton herself makes 50 to 60 quilts a year. She quilts every day, calling it her “grounding,” especially if she’s had a rough day.

One of them ended up wrapped around Tommy Reid of Halifax, a combat engineer who was Compton’s patient in Afghanistan. They reconnected later through social media. A friend, whose business sponsored the quilt, nominated him. Compton presented Reid with one of hers in June when she was in Halifax for a quilting show.

“The quilt itself is an honour to receive,” said Reid, an active member and now a geomatics technician, “but the fact it was made by Lisa, the medic who comforted me in Afghanistan makes the quilt that much more special. The quilt now comforts me at home, just as Lisa did in Afghanistan.”

The country gives back
Being a member of the military is a big part of a person’s identity, and it’s hard when plans change because of illness or injury. Compton herself had planned to be a nurse until she retired from service.

 “When things don’t happen on your terms or your transition out of the military is hard, maybe your feelings aren’t the greatest towards your experience,” she says. “Then all of the sudden you have somebody giving you this quilt.”

 That’s how Howarth felt about receiving her quilt, which she considers a positive reminder of her service.

“It’s not just my military life,” she says. “It’s the amount of sacrifice you make, your family makes for the demands of the military. It’s been my whole life, even before I was born.”

She acknowledged that family connection by using her birth name, Martinell, the name under which she joined the military, on the quilt’s dedication. It’s an unexpected gift that helps her move past the circumstances around her release and appreciate the service she gave to Canada.

“To have the country give back in this way is special.”