[whirrr]
- Glance around Kelly Kowaleski's sewing room
[whirrr]
and it becomes clear that
what she's really making here are memories.
- I love sewing.
I've loved it since I first started.
It's my outlet.
It's my passion.
It's where I get to just do what makes me happy.
[chuckling to self]
And that's the best part of it.
- Sewing has always been a creative outlet for Kelly.
- And sometimes fabric just speaks to me.
And then I kind of just let my creative juices flow.
- It was also a time she used to catch up with her son Brady.
She would sit in her sewing room
while he sat in the room next door playing videogames.
- I could see him and he could see me.
He could play his video games and I could sew.
And that's where I learned all about his life.
- Those days where some of Kelly's most cherished memories.
They're also some of her most painful.
* *
At the age of 15,
Brady tragically passed away in a hunting accident.
Kelly lost interest in sewing.
- I really felt like I had no reason to be in there
because I felt at first that
my reason for being in there was to learn about his life.
* *
[whirrr of sewing machine]
- And then one day she had an idea.
* *
Grabbing a stack of Brady's old clothes,
Kelly began creating a new set of memories.
* *
She calls them memory bears.
* *
At first, Kelly made only four bears,
all from clothes Brady had worn.
* *
- I got to touch his clothes
which is something I thought I'd never get to do again.
So even though the first clip with the scissors was hard,
but then in the back of my mind
I can't help but say he's never going to wear these again.
This is okay.
He gets it.
You know, he understands.
And then the more I made them,
the more joy I felt 'cause I can feel his clothes.
I can still visualize him wearing them
and his friends love them.
And that's, that was the key.
That was what made it all worth it.
- Four suddenly became 15.
She began giving them away to Brady's friends and family.
- The joy that it gave me to see their faces was overwhelming,
just overwhelming.
And it keeps his memory alive and that's what's so important.
[whirrr of sewing machine]
- A joy Kelly wanted to share with others.
- And I said to my husband,
I said, "Do you think I could do this?"
I said, "The feeling I get from making these,
"do you think other people would like it
if I make them for them?"
- That's when she created Bear Memories.
A small business designed to help
people remember their loved ones.
- I've made them from sweaters.
I've made them from jeans, overalls.
I can make them out of just about anything.
I've done lace, satin.
You name it, I've done it.
* *
I have had everything from howls of laughter to tears.
- Some bears are meant to tug at the heart.
* *
While others tug at a different thread.
Kelly has made hundreds of memory bears
for people all over Wisconsin.
People like Anne Lund, who gave her dad
a bear made from his brother's army uniform.
- He had tears.
My dad's not one that shows a lot of emotions
but yeah, he had tears in his eyes.
That was, that was enough.
- Or Lynn Yotter
whose dad always wore the same old plaid shirts.
- Was I believe a labor of love
because when I got the bears back,
it was just remarkable.
It was my dad.
My dad's shirts.
And they all wore the name of Papa Ken on the front.
And it was just amazing.
It was amazing.
- For many, it's a way of coping.
- There's no doubt in my mind that on Christmas morning,
he was watching these kids open these up
and probably his famous words would have been,
"Wow, you don't say."
* *
- One of the hardest parts about losing a loved one
is learning how to mend.
Kelly is doing that now
through the act of helping others do the same.
- And I knew that for Kelly,
she did it as a healing mechanism for herself,
but I don't think she realizes when she makes these bears
how much of a healing it is
for the people that are receiving them.
- A feeling made possible with some thread, a needle
and a pile of gently worn memories.
- Because I believe every time
I turn the switch on that sewing machine,
I think he's there.
Actually, I don't think he's there,
I know he's there,
because I know he is in some way or part
bringing these people to me
by trying to tell their story as well as his story.
* *