Photo: Courtesy Lisa Abitbol

Patchwork Healing

Mending Boston, a quilt to mark the Boston Marathon bombings, had to make its way through ad hoc sewing circles all over the metropolitan area before reaching Tufts Medical Center, but when it did, nurse Consuelo Donohue was ready. She contributed an MBTA patch in honor of her son, Richard Donohue, the transit police officer who survived a gunshot wound from a standoff with the bombing suspects. And two trauma surgeons added a flourish all their own: Clara Wainwright, the artist who started the project, says that they “did all these stitches and then they tied a knot after each one just like they do in surgery.” The finished quilt was exhibited at the MIT Museum in September.