INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - It was three years ago that an Indianapolis Metro Police officer was killed trying to save a woman and her toddler.
Tuesday night, the Fraternal Order of Police will honor Officer Rod Bradway and all Indiana officers killed in the line of duty as part of their annual memorial service.
Officer Bradway's mother wants all the families of fallen officers to have a unique reminder of their service and sacrifice.
"It's just my way of saying I understand," said Sheri Bradway.
Bradway has turned her grief and love of quilting, into a way to help others heal.
"Moms have lost a piece of them," she said. "Being a quilter, quilters have a tendency to put things back together."
After making a quilt in Rod's memory, she decided that all mothers of fallen officers should have a quilt of their own, so two and a half years ago, she and her husband Tom founded the non-profit, "A Quilt For Mother's Tears."
"It's my way of letting another mother know someone else knows exactly what they're going through," she said.
Tom said of the couple's foundation, "It's so much bigger than I ever thought it would be. Sheri understands what a mother feels and when you see a quilt presented to another mother. There's an instant rapport between the two."
Volunteers across the country help make the quilts. Each includes the department patch, seven stars for the seven days a week the officer is on duty and an eagle for the pride an officer feels in uniform. Since the Bradways started the project, more than 300 quilts have been given away. Sheri recalls one mother who initially was so grief-stricken, she kept her quilt in a closet.
"Now she wraps it around her shoulders, sits in rocker, drinks her morning coffee and has a hug from her son and that means world to me," Sheri said. "It gives me comfort and and makes me proud to know I helped her."
Sheri's latest project has been a large crossword quilt she spent four months making.
It includes the names of all Indiana officers killed over the last 25 years, including her son's. The symbols and words woven into the quilt came from a tattoo on Rod's arm.
They include "service, fidelity, honor, duty, valor, sacrifice, integrity and brotherhood and this at the bottom: "It's not how these officers died that made them heroes. It's how they lived."
It's one of the items that will be auctioned off at a fundraiser for the Bradway's foundation. It's set for Oct. 1st at the Pike Performing Arts Center in Indianapolis. Doors open at noon, with the auction starting at 1 pm.
While Sheri loves what she does on behalf of others, she adds, "I'd like to quit tomorrow, knowing I'd never have to give another mother a quilt for her daughter or son, but unfortunately I know that's not going to happen."
So she'll keep making quilts, keep trying to comfort those who like her, have lost a piece of themselves.
