Nappanee Couple Seeks Help Quilting To Honor Fallen Officers
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
NAPPANEE – Sheri Bradway made a quilt as therapy to honor her son who died in the line of duty in 2013. She now is seeking the community’s help in making quilts for other mothers of fallen police officers killed. Her son, Rod Bradway, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer, was fatally shot Sept. 20, 2013, at age 41. He was responding to a domestic disturbance call. Upon his arrival at the scene, Officer Bradway heard a cry for help from a woman that had been held at gunpoint for over two hours. Without hesitation, he kicked down the door to help save the woman. The gunman was waiting to ambush Officer Bradway. Although Bradway was mortally wounded, he was able to save the lives of the woman and her 10-month old baby while also wounding the gunman. Bradway served on Wayne Township Fire Department and earned recognition from Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for job performance. Bradway left behind his wife, Jamie, and two kids, Jonathan, 17, and Sierra, 15. Bradway is a 1991 NorthWood High School graduate and had served on the Indianapolis Police Department for five years. He attended Indiana State University. In May, after Sheri Bradway attended the National Police Week in Washington, D.C., an idea took form. She decided that every mother of a slain officer should be offered a memory quilt of her own tribute to her son or daughter. Her quilter’s group agreed, and a support system for the project A Quilt for Mother’s Tears is now in place. The mission of A Quilt for Mother’s Tears Inc. is to help comfort the mothers of police officers killed in the line of duty by creating quilts to honor the brave men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice. “My therapy to get through Rod’s death was making a quilt and it was through that and going to National Police Week in Washington, D.C., to realize mothers whose sons or daughters are killed in the line of duty are forgotten and I wanted them to know they are not forgotten,” Sheri said. “To honor Rod and his fallen blue line family, each quilt is in memory of that specific officer.” To date, since Jan. 1, 2013, there have been 108 quilts made to honor police officers killed in the line of duty all around the United States and Puerto Rico. The quilts will be given to the mothers of the fallen police officers during National Police Week in May 2015 in Washington, D.C. Quilters are needed to assist with the process. Each quilter receives a pattern to help Sheri make the quilts. Sheri gets the names of the fallen officers from the Officer Down Memorial Page at www.odmp.org There have been four Indiana officers killed in the line of duty whose mothers will receive the quilts during National Police Week including the mothers of Perry Renn, Indianapolis Police Department, who died July 5, 2014; Jacob Calvin, Tipton County Sheriff’s Department, who died June 28, 2014; Jeffery Westerfield, Gary Police Department, who died July 6, 2014; and Nicholas Schultz, Merriville Police Department, who died Sept. 7, 2014. Those interested in making the quilts can contact the Bradways at sbradway@aquiltformotherstears.org People can assist by stitching or quilting a Mother’s Tears pattern; sponsor a quilt; give a $125 donation to fund an entire finished quilt; or provide a monetary donation of any amount to help buy fabric and postage.
