A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Breast Cancer Quilt

That's it.

Is it okay to put something like that on here? Sorry if I was out of line.

Shamrock,
That would be great if you could let your coworkers know! You can give them my email address....I'll PM it to you.

If anyone else wants my email address to give to someone who knows names or wants to give it to friends who know names....or want to write their own mass email about the quilt, PM me and I'll give you my email address.

Will be glad to. Please do.

Once I send it out it probably won't take long to be all across the state.

You may get bombarded with emails! <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

That would be great. I've been getting emails pretty much non-stop tonight and I'm just soo excited about this quilt. Its soo touching to hear what people have to say about the people that the know and knew.

Leslie,
Not a problem on those!!!
Pretty much anything for a good cause!!!

Weezie

Jenn- It's a terrific thing you're doing. I am seriously so moved by this. You're AWESOME! I'm gonna send you a little bit of money, too, and I think I might have 3 or 4 names for you. My grandmother had breast cancer, and two aunts I know for sure died from it, and I think another aunt survived it as well. I'm gonna e-mail my mom and ask if you can put their names.

Thank you, Weezie.

Another idea. You could save all your emails, and combine them into a "book." The parts where they are telling about "their" person(s) anyway. Or do kind of like a diary of what you do each day on it, about the new names you get.

Sounds like a whole lot of work though! But you could do something with a "history" on each name. But then again, I'm sure there would be people who wouldn't want anything written.

Hey, that is a good idea...and so early in the morning, Leslie!
When I think about our (mine and shamrock's) Granny Larkey dying of breast cancer, I think about how terribly painful it must have been for her. She didn't have medical care (60 years ago) and my mom told me the cancer ate right through her, and she had open lesions with bandages on them. Just had to deal with it the best she could...the sores, the pain, and the dying.



Cindy

Jenn- maybe this is a stupid idea, but have you thought about "selling" each block for like a dollar apiece? So that way, if I have 5 names (which I do), the person sends you 5 dollars? I mean, with 900+ blocks, that would raise a lot right there!

I will keep that in mind for the next quilt. I'm up to 51 names for the quilt now. Some people have given me 9 names!!!...I'm not sure if the response would be so good with the amount of names that people can give me....BUT....I will remember that when I make the all cancers quilt. Maybe that will work. I think I will have to talk to my MIL about it. Thanks for the idea!

Quick update....

I just got 25 names from a lady that knows my neighbor. She is a minister's wife and nows alot of people. I'm up to 80 names now.

.

Your quilt pattern is beautiful.

Today I added the 100th name to the list. 855 names to go.....BUT...not bad for one week of collecting names!

I also got a phone call from the lady who coordinates the Relay for Life in Sullivan County, which is where I I participate in the relay. She is going to do what she can to help get the word out. She will have an announcement at the beginning of her meetings and will email or fax the names to me as they come in.

Hi Jenn!

I haven't been posting much of late, but have been dropping in and reading posts, and have been following this one closely, as breast cancer has affected members of my family as well.

I've sent you a PM with names to include, and will spread the word through an e-mail to friends and family.

Thank you so much for creating such a charitable and creative piece of work - YOU'RE THE BEST!

Lynne

Thank you Jenn for all your hard work! You're awesome !

Please include this name for me, Diahnna L. Halpin.

My friend, Timothy , lost his wife 2 years 3 months ago after a very long, hard fight. I never met Diahnna in person, but I know a lot about her. I work in a school kitchen with her Aunt Sandy and during her courageous battle we got weekly, sometimes daily updates of her condition. We sent meals to the family which included Diahnna, her husband Timothy, and their two children, Kathi, a teenager, and Matthew 9.

From what everyone has told me , D was a fun-loving , high-spirited, wild-child young lady. During the last years of her life she tried everything to stay young and healthy for her family. She joined the local gym, had multiple surgeries, chemo, radiation, anything and everything the doctors told her to do. She took trips to Nebraska to visit and be close to her sisters, almost too weak to make it back to Maine at one point. The last year the ugly disease really took it's toll on the family. All the doctor appointments, hospitalizations, medical bills piling up, all the household chores of daily living like laundry, meals,dishes, caring for the kids and seeing to their needs fell on Timothy's shoulders , with the help of extended family. He was her caregiver and all he wanted was his wife back. He informed everyone that Diahnna got whatever Diahnna wanted. Near the end a typical day for her was getting out of bed and moving onto the couch about 20 feet away and often times having to be carried back to bed. She lost her life on October 30, 2002 at the age of 35.

Two years later, this past November, Timothy and I were "fixed up" on a blind date. What I was expecting ws a nice time, dinner, movie, maybe a second date. What I got was SO much more ! I felt an immediate connection with him and I know that his time with D has helped shape him into the man he is today. He is kind, sensitive, fun, goofy, sweet and caring. We talk about Diahnna often, mostly her life and not her death. The cancer doesn't deserve to define her life. The love and devotion in his eyes and in his voice when he speaks about her just melts me and brings me to tears. I love her too. When I'm with Timothy I never, ever feel like I'm living in Diahnna's shadow, rather I feel like I'm living in her sunshine!

Thank you again and God bless.

Mel,
Thanks very much for the name...and for telling us about Diahnna. She is number 134 on my list.

Today when I got home from work, there were 12 emails in my box waiting for me...all with names. I jumped from 116 names on the list to 134 in a matter of minutes!

That's all this update will have in it since I am just soooo tired today. I have soo much going on right now...the quilt, another project (which will be put on hold after this week), and we are preparing to go on a trip to Florida in March to help people rebuild homes that were damaged during the hurricanes. So, I am trying to raise funds for that trip as well. Do you ever feel like your trying to raise money for too many things!?!? :rolleyes:

Anyways, thanks everyone for the support. I appreciate it greatly. You are all wonderful!

Mel...Your post made me cry.

What a nice tribute to Diahnna.

Cindy

155 names

Mel- Your post was beautiful. What a tribute.

Jenn- I forgot to send you money. Will still do it, though! I don't suppose you have a paypal account do you? And now rebuilding from the hurricanes. Once again, you ROCK!

Stephen has a paypal account, but he is unsure if he would have to pay a fee for the money to get put into the account. He says that for him to get the $ out of the account, there is no fee and for him to pay someone, but he does get charged a fee if money is put in the account from an auction. He is not sure if there would be a charge for cash to be just put into that account without an auction. So.......I guess to make it all simple, you can just send it here to the house.

Before it snowed, I did go out to get fabric for the top of the quilt because I wanted to be able to work on the quilt while I was stuck in the house. I only got the bare minium that I would need because I didn't want you to feel badly for not getting the donation here in time for me to use it for my initial buying of fabric. I still have to buy threads and batting and backing fot the quilt. Yesterday I didn't get to work on the quilt since we had a brown out for 3-4 hours and I couldn't run anything. Today I worked on cutting fabric during the Eagles game. I have all of the pink cut and am getting ready to cut the white colors.

Let's see....as of right now there are 165 names on the list.

I will start another thread for the rebuilding thing if people are interested in knowing more about that. Let me know if I should.

Jenn...
I finally got mine out in the mail yesterday.

(Just kidding!)

Cindy

Well, I love the magnets!! They look good on my barren frig!

There are 185 names on the list now.

I got a letter from JoAnn Fabrics in response to my request to a donation. The letter basically told me that my quilt wasn't a big enough project for them to help me out. A little discouraging, but I can still ask for a 10% discount on supplies if I talk to the person in charge of our local JoAnn. If she feels its a good enough cause, she can give the 10% off to me.

I start cutting fabric. All of the pink is done and I've started on the white. That's about it for the quilt right now.