Fun
Knit to This: Tallu Forever
Dear Kay,
Remember that time we went to a fundraiser for the Nashville Food Project and you bid on a KitchenAid mixer that you thought I needed and you ended up winning—and I paid for?
Probably not. But I know you remember the speaker that evening, and how astonishing she was, and how she mesmerized a stacked room of people with the power of her words and simple, unadorned message: feed the hungry and we feed everybody.
Tallu Schuyler Quinn was a masterful communicator—an unearthly combination of love, strength, urgency, and joy. She founded a nonprofit that tapped into a city’s need to feed the hungry, for food justice, for education for young people, and for volunteers who wanted to help.
I admired her completely. Loved her. Everybody did. I would say she was incredible except that she was the opposite: she was credible. She had work to do, and she did it, fast and well. And she did it with humor and frankness and a pure view of her mission.
So, two years ago, when news spread that she had contracted brain cancer at the age of 40, Tallu reacted with the characteristic generosity that marked everything she did. She started writing to us all, in what is surely the most exquisite Caring Bridge journal anybody ever wrote. Her posts gave us all such a window into her life, her family, her deepest thoughts, and intimate feelings.
Tallu died two months ago, at the age of 42.
Here’s the thing to celebrate, even as we’re all grieving the loss of this gigantic sunbeam. While under treatment, she was given a publishing contract to turn her writings into a book of essays. This week marks the publication of What We Wish Were True: Reflections on Nurturing Life and Facing Death from Penguin Random House.
I’m listening to the audiobook right now. Tallu herself reads the Author’s Note, beautiful and heartbreaking. The narrator for the essays, Allyson Ryan, catches the cadence of Tallu’s inimitable voice. I’m letting it all wash over me as I knit. Tallu makes me treasure life all over again.
Tallu’s degree was in bookbinding and papermaking, and she had a Masters in Divinity from Columbia University. She was a knitter, too. All this comes to bear in these essays.
Tallu was a fine baker, and she wanted everybody to have bread at her memorial service. Hundreds of loaves, large and small, baked by dozens of people, appeared. There was bread for all.
Love,
Ann
Thank you Ann.
Oh! I’m so sorry. She sounds completely amazing.
Wow.
Thank you, Ann, for reminding us all who and what is important (in case we needed a nudge.)
I am a knitter and baker of bread. For me, crafting bread is moving meditation. I wrap my loaves and leave them in spots around my little village. My work is small compared to Tallu’s. Thank youfor introducing us to her. I am sorry for Nashville’s and the world’s loss.
Ann, thank you for this. Every morning I start my day at the kitchen table with MDK and a bowl of fruit and cereal . The content always informs, teaches and enchants me. I appreciate the work you and Kay put into bringing us such richness of diverse ideas and people. I would never have known of this lovely woman’s life without you writing about her today. Thank you again.
Thank you for telling us about Tallu. She was sent to us with a profound message. I will order her book.
I agree. I also start my day with MDK and appreciate all that you do for us. I have learned so much more than knitting from your daily missives. What a remarkable woman Tallu was and what a loss. Thank you.
On what ways did you get involved in her work? She sounds like an amazing person.
Ann, what a moving tribute to your friend. I love that she even wanted to nourish her friends as you said goodbye to her. A reminder to make our mark with kindness whenever we can.
Cooking for 150 with my friend Judy in their kitchen, writing about NFP, donating $$$. It’s a model of sustainable food production, gleaning from local restaurants, gardens, and grocery stores. We made so many meals using leftover Chipotle chicken, venison donated by hunters, almost-gone produce, all transformed into something completely delicious when Judy got at it.
A very emotional praise of a wonderful woman. I got goosebumps when I read her story. Thanks for sharing. Perhaps this telling will nudge some of us to do likewise.
Sometimes the best are taken too soon (whom the gods love die young). Their legacy lives on.
Thank you for this tribute and introducing us to the life and work of Ms. Quinn.
I plan to order her book. What an inspiration she remains. Sad to lose such an unselfish woman.
Thank you so much for being part of our small efforts to keep Tallu alive in our hearts. I knew her here in NYC. In addition to attending seminary, she was a vicar at my church. After she went back home I continued to connect through knitting projects. Her soul, kindness, and love exudes in her writing. She still takes care of us, even in death.
What a blow and profound loss to everyone in her circle of influence. May people step up to continue the work.
Thank you Anne for sharing this story. I will be buying this book shortly.
I remember Tallu playing her guitar and singing at Woodmont Christian when we lived in Nashville. She loved the folk song “Water is Wide”. I didn’t realize she started Mobile Loaves and Fishes, which became the Nashville Food Project, until I read her obituary. What an amazing woman.
What a lovely example and reminder to us all. ❤️
In the days of the Walkman I would get tapes from the library and I thought that I had died and gone to heaven with my knitting needles in hand and now the technology has taken us further into the great wide open ! Life is good !!’
In case anyone is wondering, you can purchase the audiobook on Libro.fm, and support a local bookstore in the process (yay Mindfair Books in Oberlin, Ohio!).
Dear Ann,
I am so sorry for your loss, Nashville’s loss, the whole world’s loss. Thankful her memory will live on.
It is such a loss for our community. I didn’t know her, just know all the good that she did, and it makes me so very sad.
What a beautiful tribute to your friend. I had never heard of her but…I think I miss her.