Her friend, Kathy Brill, is director of recreational therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. For three years they served together in Norristown, with the 358th Civil Affairs Brigade.
Then Brill was called up to active duty in February 2007 and assigned to work with the Iraqi Health Ministry in Baghdad.
Houck thought a quilt with a patriotic pattern would make a nice homecoming gift.
"In honor of her serving in Iraq, I thought I'd do this for her."
She bought a kit that would help her stitch an eight-point star in the colors of the American flag onto a twin-size spread that measures 14 feet by 14 feet.
"We're talking thousands of stitches," she said.
Stitching time
She thought the work would take a year. That was until she, herself, was called up to active duty, which left her less time.
So at night when she and Doug watched television or listened to the radio, she'd sew. And sew.
Brill had been back since January, and the quilt still wasn't done. Houck figured she needed about a half-year to finish. Plus her mother's expertise.
She flew to Oklahoma on May 7 to see her mom, who's ailing. After 11 days, Houck was heading home early on May 18, but American Airlines canceled her flight.
Fly standby, she was advised at the counter, so she did, checking her big black nylon bag with a hot-pink name tag stitched onto the front.
(This was before American announced it would charge $15 per bag, which is good because that would have added insult to injury.)
She didn't get on the first connecting flight out of Dallas that morning, but made the next one. After landing in Philadelphia, she went straight to the baggage carousel. Her luggage was not there.
The baggage handlers told her to make a report, and they'd notify her when the luggage turned up. She called the next day, a Monday, and there was no news. On Tuesday, the handlers told her to call the airline directly.
