Taking life one stitch at a time

WASILLA -- Located at the end of a cul-de-sac near Vine Road, Effie Abercrombie's home is small and crowded. Photos fill the small white walls where the 48-year-old lives with her two sons, Orion and Justin. Although space is limited, Abercrombie says, the little gray building is a blessing -- one that provides warmth, a place to pursue her passion and a much-needed home for herself and her boys.

Life was not always so comfortable, though.

"When I first saw [this place] it was a dump," Abercrombie said. "It was a 16 by 30 little shack." But that didn't deter her. "I just saw a vision and could see making a home here."

With the help of neighbors she was able to nearly double the size of the home and clean up the landscaping, hauling away two dumptruck loads of trash. A special grant, however, made the biggest change.

"This wonderful angel in Anchorage told me about this company and they did two grants wrapped into one," Abercrombie said. The money allowed her to go from hauling water and firewood to a home with full utilities. The purpose of the grant was to improve the living conditions of her 24-year-old son Orion, who has Down Syndrome, but Abercrombie just looks at it as another of many blessings in a life many might have called difficult.

Moving to Alaska in 1967, Abercrombie said she has sweet memories of the early years in Eagle River where neighbors were miles away and moose could be hunted from the front yard. When she was 12 years old, though, she ran away from home and ended up as many teens do, in trouble.

"I lived kind of a hard life. I did my share of experimenting and of hard times," Abercrombie said.

Eventually she ended up in a home for troubled girls -- nicknamed Aquarius House -- the first of its kind in Anchorage started by Ron and Patty Olson. "Most of us came from McLaughlin [Youth Center]," she said.

In 1972, at the age of 16, she left Aquarius House with her boyfriend at the time and together they lived in the mountains for nearly a year.

"I loved it," she said. "I loved gardening and I learned a lot -- kind of living off the land."

Abercrombie's daughter, Honie, was born in 1975 and by then she was a single mother. She moved to Delta Junction and stayed for 13 years, working about seven years at Fort Greely as a sports director at a youth activities building. She didn't know it then, but it would be the background that would lead her years later to becoming involved in Special Olympics in Mat-Su.

It was while in Delta that she received her "gift from the Lord." When, at 23, Abercrombie found out she was pregnant, she said she knew this baby would be different. Even his name, she said, was given to her from the heavens. Laying in bed in her small Delta cabin she would stare up into the night sky through a 20-foot skylight -- the Orion constellation hovered above her.

"I knew when I was pregnant he was going to be special," Abercrombie said, smiling as she recalled her "hippie" friends and their hand-made baby gifts. But soon Orion's health issues and the distance to the nearest hospital became a problem.

"He was sickly at first, and we weren't sure what the problem was -- he would stop breathing," she said. With the nearest hospital in Fairbanks, a long ambulance ride or one in a helicopter became the norm.

In 1990, now with another son, Justin, Abercrombie moved her family to the Valley. Since then Honie graduated from high school and recently became an Alaska State Trooper, stationed in Fairbanks where she is raising her own daughter, Jalyn, who is 8. Fifteen-year-old Justin attends Burchell High School and Orion -- "the star" -- has competed in numerous Special Olympics events with dozens of medals to prove it, each time with his mother either helping to organize the events or cheering him on. Last year Abercrombie had two total knee replacements. But now life has calmed down a little bit at the little gray cabin, and when not at work Abercrombie is immersing herself in her passion -- sewing.

"I love to sew and someday hope to have my own business at home," she said. "When I'm not too tired I'm making something," she says, sweeping her arms toward her sewing machine, piles of fabric, hand-made shirts and robes, hats and spools of thread tucked into every recess of her small bedroom.

"I've made lots of hats," Abercrombie said. "Some day I'd like to go to Hatcher Pass and see how many of my hats are going down the hill."

She has already come up with a label for her clothing line: Abercrombie & Stitch.