RIVERDALE -- Gary Odam's Marine uniforms were taking up space in his closet and he was faced with a dilemma -- he knew he didn't want to get rid of them, but he didn't know what to do with them. Then he got an idea after visiting his grandma and seeing one of her hand-made quilts -- a Marine quilt.
"At first I was a little worried that he wanted me to do it," said Odam's wife, Maria Odam.
Gary laughs when he thinks of his first ideas of spreading out the uniforms and piecing the quilt with his wife. Maria started talking to friends and found out that Diana Schalk, who works at Gardiner's Sew and Quilt, might be able to do the job.
Schalk agreed. "I felt very honored," Schalk said of the job to put the quilt together.
She has had several family members who have served in the military and has utmost respect for anyone who has served their country. She went to work trying to figure out how to put everything together.
"I had a very hard time cutting the uniform. It was a gut-wrenching thing," Schalk said. She knows how much the uniforms mean and where they've been.
"I have felt that sense of honor. It was a very emotional journey and a very sacred thing to me," Schalk said.
Gary retired from the Marines a few years ago, but holds the 20 years he spent serving his country close to his heart and his uniforms have many memories for him.
"I had been wearing these things for 20 years and I gave it some time and it was time to let go," Gary said of cleaning out his closet. His son recently left home to join the Air Force and he and his wife found themselves with an extra bedroom, so he decided to dedicate it to his Marine service.
Most of his uniforms, with the exception of the dress blues, have been discontinued and can't be worn by other Marines, so Gary knows there is no disrespect for cutting up the uniforms. He is glad to have the visual reminder every day.
Plaques and awards hang on the wall of his "Marine room" and a shadow box is filled with medals as well as a retired flag, but in the center of the room, draped across the bed is something Gary holds very dear -- the quilt containing many of his uniforms that traveled the world with him. His quilt displays symbols from the last 20 years of his life -- fatigues from Desert Shield and fatigues from Desert Storm proudly display his name on their patches; pieces of his dress blues that have seen many Marine balls; a belt buckle from his dress blues pants; his Marine tie; the red patch that represents his most recent tour in Iraq in 2003 and the red striping from his uniforms that border the entire quilt.
Gary was impressed with how quickly Schalk was able to get the quilt done.
"I thought it would take five years to make. I pictured an old lady sitting on a porch sewing continually," Gary said with a laugh. He loved the way Schalk worked with him and thought the process out. She will also make him another quilt entirely of his old Marine fatigues.
Schalk makes several quilts a year for various people and loves the chance to capture people's lives in the quilts, but she has never captured a life like Gary's in a quilt and is awed by the chance she had to work on it. Gary loves to just look at it and touch it and remember.
"I love the uniqueness. Maybe nobody else has one. Just knowing that it's mine and I wore these things."
Maria is glad to have the quilt and the memories there for her husband.
"War changes things," she said as she and her husband exchanged a loving glance.
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