Locally-made Bloomsday quilt a very special gift

SANDPOINT — As college graduation presents go, it was tough to beat the heartfelt gift Sandpoint’s John Howard gave to his granddaughter Sydney Jones recently.

Howard, 85, ran in 33 Bloomsday’s, including the first 27, and decided to have every shirt sewn into a quilt for Jones, who lives in Seattle.

Not surprisingly, the quilt was warmly received.

“She cried, my daughter and wife cried, and then I got tears in my eyes,” described Howard. “I just think that quilt is neat. I ran every one of those.”

The quilt was created by locals Shannon Abromeit, who did the piecing, and Fonda Sarff, who did the quilting. It took the pair three weeks to complete, and Howard couldn’t believe how beautiful the final product was.

The only thing at issue was how much money should be paid.

“I said ‘the only problem is the money,’” described Howard. “They said ‘we’ll give it to you for half price,’ and I said ‘no, I want to give you more money.’”

That Howard was even around to give such a personal gift is amazing in itself. Two years ago his heart was operating at just 15 percent, and he had an operation to transplant a pig’s heart. Now he’s back up near 90 percent and able to walk on golf courses.

Thankful to still be enjoying life, he keeps a healthy and humorous perspective on things.

“I hate eating pork now because it might be a relative,” said Howard, who has a condo in Sandpoint and spends the winters in Arizona. “When I say ‘oink-oink,’ you’ll know why.”

Howard quit smoking two weeks before the first ever Bloomsday in 1977, and was one of the Perennials for many years. He clocked a 1:08 for his best time, and said it was a slow and steady decline from there.

He ran the last one at 80 years-old, and Doomsday Hill nearly did him in.

“I keeled over coming up Doomsday Hill. I leaned down and fell over,” recalled Howard. “They wanted to call 9-1-1, but I said ‘no, I want to finish.’ I ended up walking in with a pair of good looking girls under each arm.”