In Dixon’s poem, “Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt” he illustrates Aunt Ida as a main character. In this poem, she is the aunt of her niece Francine. Junie, Francine’s son, dies from the auto-immune disease AIDS. Despite the fact that Junie dies, Francine and Aunt Ida talk about his greatness in the poem. Dixon shows how tight and secure the family bond within the family is by portraying the strong attraction and connection they have. As oppose to the poem, in reality when someone in a family receives such a life threatening disease the person and the family starts to become estranged. However, this does not take place in the poem, so as a result Aunt Ida is persuaded to make a quilt using pieces of Junie’s clothes by Francine. As she is finishing the quilt, Francine mentions about sending the quilt to Washington to join the other quilts that were created for the same purpose to ultimately create a gargantuan quilt. Ironically at the end, Aunt Ida mentions that Maxine, who is related to May’s husband’s sister, is having a baby, and how she has to make a new quilt. This shows a sign of the coming of a new person into the world in addition to the departure of someone.
