April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
JESUS PLAQUES
Sewing signs of faith
Mrs. Traynor has hand-stitched more than 1,000 plaques with an optical illusion that reveals Jesus' name. She places stickers on the back of each plaque that say: "If you look hard enough, you will find Jesus. Once you find Him, He will always be there."
Mrs. Traynor, a parishioner of St. Clement's Church in Saratoga Springs, also attended St. Mary's Church in Ballston Spa for decades. She made it her mission to share her religious artwork 25 years ago, when she spotted a similar piece at her hair salon.
At first, she stared at the "Jesus plaque" while she was under the hair dryer, puzzled by its message. Then "it hit me right in the face," she recalled.
Mrs. Traynor began making the plastic-canvas plaques herself, and her hobby ballooned into a vocation. She gave plaques to priests, doctors, nursing homes and her favorite supermarket, pharmacy and deli employees - even hotel cleaners she met on vacation.
"Everybody raved about it when I handed them out, especially priests," she said.
When her husband, Kellet, died in the late 1990s, Mrs. Traynor, now 83, put her energy into mailing packages of 12 plaques (symbolizing the 12 Apostles) all over the country.
She recruited her five adult children to select random Christian churches they found on the internet, write form letters and print stickers to send with plaques.
After expanding to churches in nine European countries and the British Isles, Mrs. Traynor has finished all but two U.S. states and wants to start sending plaques to South American countries. Her message has reached all seven continents: A group of Aborigine schoolchildren sent a thank-you, as did the Vatican and the White House. She heard from Pope Benedict XVI and the Obama family, too.
"It made me very proud when I got the letter back from Michelle [Obama]," Mrs. Traynor said. "It makes my heart pound when I get a thank-you note."
It takes her four hours to stitch a plaque; she spends about $100 a year on supplies and less than $5 per item on shipping. Her favorite postal clerk has been given a plaque, too.
Mrs. Traynor refuses to accept payment for her work. "I don't sell Jesus," she said. "I'm doing it for God. When I see a smile on a child's face, or even a priest's, it lights me up inside."
She said she never asks if the recipient is Christian - but she's never received a negative comment or had a plaque returned.
"I want to spread the name of Jesus to everyone. That's why God put us here," she said, recalling a mantra she learned in the second grade in Erie County: "To know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next."
That advice has been evident in her faith life as an adult. "I don't think I ever recall a time where she's had that faith shaken," said Mrs. Traynor's daughter, Pamela.
Since being widowed, Mrs. Traynor's daughters said she's sensed her husband's presence in her life. On their first wedding anniversary after his death, for instance, one of her children saw a lone bagpiper walking through a park. Their 50th anniversary celebration had featured bagpipers.
"I feel he always is saying to me, 'Betty, when are you coming to see me?'" Mrs. Traynor said. "I just feel it."
The seamstress has nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.[[In-content Ad]]
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