Allerton Three Tea Party and New Chandeliers

Warning – Long post, picture-rich.

On Friday we had our Allerton Three Anniversary Tea Party. The Allerton Three is the group of us girls who met up on Allerton Ward last year, all having our bowel cancer operations. (It sounds like a criminal gang. I am convinced they discharged us for bad behaviour.) We became firm friends and have kept up, meeting when we can, and are in regular email contact. We all attend the monthly relaxation sessions put on by the Lodge, the cancer support centre at the hospital, which is a good regular contact time, and we’ve had lunch out together, and last week one of them had several paintings in her art group’s exhibition so we went over for that, on a day that she was stewarding, so we could see her.

We decided to celebrate the first anniversary of our friendship by having this tea party. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it exactly a year on from our meeting because the other two were away, and Friday was the first day when we were all free. It also coincided with a Lodge day so we met there and all came back here together afterwards – first we chilled out, then we pigged out lol!

It was lovely showing them where we live, and both of them enjoyed seeing my studio and some of the work I have done, and the artist denied being green with envy!!

I had laid up the table in Mum’s room with my best embroidered cloth, and it was groaning with plates of all my baking! Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I completely forgot to photograph it so I will have to leave that to your imagination, but it did look lovely. Afternoon tea is a great favourite with us all, and we agreed, happily, that this seems to be an institution that is at last coming back into fashion. I got my pretty cake plates out (I wish I still had Mum’s old wooden 3-tier cake stand!) and my Denby pottery tea set – this is rather thick and heavy, unfortunately, but the beautiful bone china one that was my grandmother’s all got broken over the years and is no more. I put out my little tea knives, though, and the silver jam spoons for the cream tea, and the matching table napkins that go with the cloth, and it all looked very pretty. I’m so fed up with myself for forgetting to photograph it!

This afternoon I decided to plate up the leftovers and photograph them so you could at least see a bit how things looked.

Chocolate chip cookies. They are flavoured with vanilla. One of my friends said that instead of vanilla, you can add orange zest and/or essence and get a real Terry’s Chocolate Orange (“not for sharing” lol! – remember those adverts?) flavour. I must try this.

Cinnamon biscuits.

Shortbread.

Remember the little cakes I made with the sticky icing (featured in my previous blog post)? Well, that icing failed to set, so on Thursday I scraped it all off and chucked it out. I made some more, this time butter cream, which worked much better, and coloured it pink, and spread it on the cakes, and then coloured the remainder a nice rich dark red and piped the little stomas on top!

Here’s a detail. You can see that for added realism (!) I have added a chocolate chip in the centre!

One of my friends asked me, “What’s that little brown thing in the centre?” I said, “Well, it’s poo, isn’t it!!” We all fell about laughing at the stomas and she said, “Yes, but what is it really?” so I told her it was a chocolate chip! Then she helped herself to one of the chocolate energy bites and said, “These look just like poo, too!” More laughter!

I am convinced that our time together on Allerton Ward turned us into three giggling poo-obsessed schoolgirls! It’s all the fault of the nurses. They never talked about anything else – but then you can’t blame them – it was the gut ward after all! It was there that we learnt all about the Bristol Stool Chart – I couldn’t believe that someone had actually poked around in people’s poo and graded it, and was convinced that the nurses were pulling our legs, but no, it’s genuine!

What a lovely topic of conversation over our tea party.

A friend on the stoma forum I’m on came up with the Bristol Ileostomy Output Chart (being different from poo, we felt that we needed our own chart – I printed this out and took it in to the stoma nurses!)

It’s a good thing that for those of us fortunate enough never to have grown up, poo remains a subject of giggle-generating infantile humour. I’m sure it’s one of the things that got us through last year’s ordeal!! Guffaw guffaw!

Here’s a mixed platter of goodies.

You can see that there are some buttered Scots pancakes (drop scones) and a couple of plain scones spread with strawberry jam and clotted cream – a traditional Devon cream tea!

I also took some photos of my beautiful embroidered table cloth which we used for the tea party. This belonged to my grandmother and I think it may have been one of the pieces she brought back from the Canary Islands where she often used to spend the winter. It is a beautiful natural-coloured linen with slightly darker embroidery, with satin stitch and drawn thread work.

Last week everything went brilliantly, timing-wise (apart from the first attempt at icing the stoma cakes) and the two chandeliers I’d ordered both arrived. On Wednesday, when our sitting room one came, I phoned the electrician straight away, and he said he could come the following day to fit it, which was great – it’s now installed and looking so pretty! The light in the room is a huge improvement on the single bulb under a shade that did little to improve the dimness of the room – it has five arms, each with a nice bright LED candle bulb.

What pretty patterns it makes on the ceiling when it’s lit. Also, I love how I can see it reflected in the mirror from where I sit on the recliner.

The other chandelier didn’t require the electrician to fit it, as it is just a fancy sort of lampshade, but he did install a longer flex for it. When Mum was in her flat, she complained it wasn’t bright enough and got my hubby to take the shade off her ceiling light, and it was so grim with just a bare bulb. Having a pretty chandelier answers the problem, and I chose a particularly pretty one on Ebay, in the “cascade” style.

In preparation for our tea party, I also added a few things to the room to make it more homely. Mum had brought very little with her from her old house and the room was stark and unwelcoming and unattractive. Unfortunately she has no sense of style and if something was of no practical use she wasn’t interested. My hubby brought the rug down from the loft, and the red armchair and the Indian table had already gone through when Gary was decorating our sitting room. I finally got around to unpacking one of the remaining boxes from the house move and put out the sitting room ornaments that there hadn’t been room for in our other room. I rummaged in my studio to find my huge Chinese fan that I bought years ago and which had never been displayed. I also put up some other pictures in place of the horrible ones that had been there before! Now that the big bookcase has gone, the room is looking a lot more attractive, homely and welcoming. I brought the large silk ficus plant in from our entrance lobby (where everybody just walked past it anyway without noticing it) and that’s softened things a bit, too.

The standard lamp that we bought for her has a pink shade which doesn’t co-ordinate with the room but I am planning to replace this.

A view of the garden through the open door.

It was great that both chandeliers arrived in time to be installed before our tea party, so that both rooms were complete. Also, on Friday morning, again just in time, my hubby went over to the furniture restorer who has mended the broken section of my magnificent Burmese screen, and for the first time since we moved, it is now displayed in all its glory.

All three panels of this screen are as intricately carved front and back, so it can be displayed anywhere in a room so that all sides are visible. I’ve never had a large enough room to be able to use it as a room divider, which is what would be ideal. I inherited this screen from my grandfather and it has accompanied me throughout my adult life. It is made from solid Burma teak and weighs an absolute ton! Over the years various bits on the tops got broken and the restorer has re-attached the bits that I still had. When I disassembled it to move here, one of the top pieces fell into two halves and I could see that this had happened before, and that my grandfather had mended it, but the glue had dried out. These two pieces have now been stuck back together. This is one of my great treasures!

Our sitting room looks so beautiful now it’s all complete at last, and everything is integrated an appears “meant to be” rather than the overcrowded clutter of before, and with Mum’s room being so much nicer too, we are taking advantage of it and sitting in there sometimes, getting the afternoon and evening sun, and having a nice view over the garden, with direct access to the little patio with the pots of flowers.

I shall be taking some more garden photos soon, and possibly doing a video tour of the garden as things start to grow and mature. My hubby has worked so hard out there and it’s all looking lovely.

One final bit of news – I sang in church for the first time today! I was thrilled to do it and it went very well, and I got some lovely feedback, which was very encouraging. I am booked to sing again on 12th June. It is a number of years since I have done this. I have such a sense of many doors beginning to open for me now that last year is behind me, and it’s an exciting and positive time, with lots to look forward to now that I feel I’ve been given my life back and I am looking upon things in a new light, as if everything is all fresh and clean and new.

I just feel incredibly blessed.

Completion of Florabunda Alphabet

Last night I finally completed the Florabunda alphabet I’ve been working on, with the letters K to Z, so I can now make personalised cards for all my friends, even those whose names begin with X lol!

Here is the complete set.

Health Update

At long last I am starting to feel better! The final chemo just over three weeks ago certainly made its presence felt and the effects went on well into week 3 of the cycle, which was unusual because with previous treatments, by week 3 I was always feeling a lot better. It was doubly surprising that it went on so long, because the final treatment, like the penultimate one, was at a reduced dose. I am still getting peripheral neuropathy, mostly in my feet now, which is strange because I’ve had more trouble with it in my hands previously – it seems to be there a lot of the time, giving me feelings of numbness and pins and needles, particularly in my toes, and it seems unrelated to cold, too. I shall mention this to the oncologist when I next see her.

I have now started to pick up the threads of my life again, doing some domestic tasks. It may sound funny, but I am so enjoying this! It is making me feel a lot more human again, and in control of my life. My hubby has been so wonderful looking after me all this time but I really feel it’s high time I took back a lot of what he’s been doing, and started looking after him again after so many months.

Here are the “firsts” in getting my life back again!

Thursday: I did my first batch of laundry. Since going into hospital, my lovely cleaning lady has been doing this for me, apart from the odd bit of hand washing that I’ve managed to keep up with.

Friday: First lot of ironing.

Saturday: I got up and got my own breakfast for the first time. Since my operation, my hubby has been bringing me breakfast in bed. First washing up – I did the breakfast things! A gentle introduction. I also finished the ironing. I sorted the larder cupboards in the kitchen and made a list of what we’ve got, and what we need. I started making my first shopping list for the online order I shall be doing in the coming week.

Sunday: I went to church for the first time since May, when I had recovered sufficiently from my operation, just before I started my chemo. I was quite overwhelmed by the lovely welcome I received – everybody was surprised and delighted to see me back and I got a LOT of hugs! Everyone said how well I was looking. I would have easily forgiven them for forgetting me altogether, it’s been so long since I showed my face in the place! I washed up the evening meal dishes. Soon I will be cooking the evening meal, too!

Monday (today): I sorted the freezer and defrosted it. Much as I hate having to throw food away, I did have to throw away a bit, because it was too old. Once I’m back in the driving seat as far as the cooking and shopping are concerned, I shall have a proper idea of what we’ve got, and what needs eating first, etc. etc. and this won’t happen again. I have also re-started my diet – I am on the 5:2 diet, where you restrict your diet to a maximum of 500 cals for two days of the week and eat normally for the other five. I had to abandon this, on the advice of my surgeon, in advance of my operation, in order to keep my strength up and allow my body to recover. Although I have gained some weight during this time, I have managed to keep it on a more or less even keel, which I am pleased about, but now it is time to resume the downward trend and hopefully to reach my target weight by next summer.

During the coming week, I’ve got the fridge to sort and clean out, and the small freezer (part of the fridge-freezer in the kitchen). I also need to clean the hob and possibly the oven but I may ask my cleaning lady to do the latter lol!! There’s a box of food out on the counter where my hubby has been putting his food shopping for easy access for his cooking, and this needs sorting and the stuff putting away, and then I can clean that counter, including all the crumbs from the toaster! Tomorrow morning I shall finalise my online shopping list and then do the order in the afternoon, and request the delivery for Wednesday, as I used to do before. I am hoping to cook the first evening meal on Wednesday.

I am also trying to be good, and going to bed earlier than I am used to, so that I can get up earlier. The trouble is, my M.E. messes with my internal clock, and I tend to be mentally alert in the small hours, and do not feel at all ready to go up at midnight! I am trying to go up to bed at 12.20 a.m. at the latest. Since I have been doing this, I have not been sleeping well (waking frequently) which is what always happens if I go up before I feel ready, but this time I am determined to try and educate my body and put up with the wakefulness until it settles down into a new routine.

This whole cancer journey has brought me to a new start in my life, and I am determined to set up good habits from now on. I seem to be at my best for doing things in the mornings, so I am putting my feet up in the afternoons and evenings and not overdoing things. I have been needing a sleep in the afternoons but this may not last forever as I gradually recover my strength.

I am also hoping to be able to start spending some quality time in the studio doing art and being creative! Initially a lot of my energy will be taken up just getting things straight in the house again, but once this settles down and I’m properly into a routine, I am looking forward to spending time up there, probably mostly in the mornings, depending on how my energy levels pick up.

Some More Florabunda Alphabet Letters

Yesterday I drew some more Florabunda alphabet letters, and have now done F to J. I noticed that the first few looked a bit sparse compared with later ones, so I added some more flowers to the backgrounds and re-scanned them, so they are now more of a piece.

Only 16 more to do and the alphabet will be complete! Here’s how it looks so far.

These will be nice to use on personalised cards, and now that they are scanned in, I can make them whatever size I want. I can also colour them if I want, but so far I quite like them in black and white.

Yesterday I made a leaflet which I want to show to the organisers of the cancer information centre at the hospital when I next visit. I am hoping they will allow me to run an informal group of say half a dozen people, so that I can teach them the basics of the Zentangle method of drawing. I do not profess to be a teacher and am not a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) but in a small way, I think I could share what I know, and get people started on what is a most relaxing and fulfilling activity, which is very de-stressing, and could really help people to deal with their cancer/chemo a little better. I do hope they will agree to let me do this!

If they give me the go-ahead, I can adapt this leaflet and make it into a poster, with their contact number and details on it.

Health Update

I am now well into my second week of my final chemo cycle, and have been feeling pretty terrible for the past two or three days. This happened last time too, on the reduced dose – I thought I was getting away with it because I felt so good in week 1 compared with other cycles, and then it hit me big time in week 2! This time, it’s worse, and I’ve had symptoms I haven’t had since earlier on in my treatment – I felt a bit nauseous this morning but fortunately that passed before lunch because I took my pre-lunch anti-sickness meds. Also, the peripheral neuropathy was quite troublesome this morning, and again my hands seemed to seize up, but these symptoms are transitory, thank goodness. I suppose that I should expect this, because even with the reduced dose, the effects are cumulative. I’ve felt extremely wiped out again, not helped by the fact that for the past few nights I have slept very badly, and I had a sleep this afternoon. I’ve felt very weak and wobbly, and my balance is much worse than usual so I am having to be careful moving around the house. I am using my trolley rather than my crutches and that does help.

I know that this will pass, and that by the end of this week I should be feeling a lot better again! Knowing that feeling better is no longer a prelude to being cast down to the bottom again by another treatment is having a huge psychological benefit, and I can put up with anything in the knowledge that this is temporary, and that I am now at the beginning of the road back to being my “normal” self again!

I Have Finished my Chemo!

The second of two posts for today. Please scroll down to see my latest Florabunda card collection – worth seeing as the Perfect Pearls are just gorgeous!

I have posted an edited entry from my Cancer Diary page into the main blog because it is such an important event, and I know that not everybody visits the Cancer Diary. Edit: I have been experiencing problems with Blogger (again…) and am unable to post from Blogger’s editor so my latest Cancer Diary page has not yet been updated. Unfortunately I cannot post to any page except the Home Page on my blog from Windows Live Writer, which is my preferred blog editor. Further edit: I have now discovered that this is a problem with Firefox. I can successfully publish posts to my Cancer Diary page if I use Chrome – not my preferred browser, so I am hoping Firefox will resolve this issue in double quick time!

I keep being quite overwhelmed by the fact that today I had my final chemo session! I wonder when I am going to wake up and find that it is not true and that I still have loads to get through... Recently I got really fed up with feeling ill all the time, and wondered if I'd ever get through it but the time has simply raced away, and suddenly I was facing the final session.

I had to wait for nearly an hour before being seen, but in the end this was a blessing in disguise (more later). I was taken in and prepared for the chemo as usual, and then went into the treatment bay. I began by eating the lovely packed lunch my hubby had so kindly made for me, and continued through the afternoon with a combination of a bit of colouring for my Florabunda card project, reading my book, and doing part of a puzzle, and chatting with some really lovely people. One lady told me she’d recently had a colostomy and wasn’t dealing well with it. I had a chat with her and said that how she felt did not alter the fact of it being part of her life, and that a change of attitude would really help her. I shared my story, and also gave her quite a few hints that I have learnt along the way. I got some nice feedback from one of the nurses later, that this lady had found the conversation very helpful. I shall be very happy if any of my experiences over the past year can be used to help others even in a small way.

The atmosphere is so friendly on the unit and even people whose cancer is terminal have the most amazing upbeat attitude and are full of smiles, and the resolution to make the absolute best of whatever life remains to them, and everyone emphasises the importance of family, of love, of appreciating each and every day, of counting one's blessings - all those things that money cannot buy, and which are of infinite worth. All attitudes and thoughts I have been cultivating over the past months! The nurses are also all amazing, and the clerical staff too - there is a lot of laughter in what is a happy place, despite the seriousness of its raison d'etre. Logically, it should be a place of doom and gloom and depression, but the resilience of the human spirit, and love and caring, make it quite otherwise.

My hubby arrived while I still had about a quarter of an hour of chemo infusion to go, and then I saw the machine count down from one minute to zero, and my final beeps began, and I raised all my imaginary flags! The nurse who had been looking after me today, came and did all the necessaries to finish my treatment, and I was free to go.

By this time, because of the delay at the start, all the other patients had gone, and the nurses were not all rushing around being ultra-busy, so I got my phone out and said I wanted some photos of me with them all. They were all very enthusiastic about the idea, apart from one who wailed, "I haven't got any makeup on!!" in very good humour, and was instantly shouted down, in equally good humour and a lot of laughter ("We haven't got time to wait two hours..." "I've got some permanent markers in my locker..." etc. etc.!!) We called Emma, my favourite desk clerk of the team who work on reception, and she came and joined in the photo shoot too.

Here are the photos I took of the Ricky Grant Day unit (looking very strange with no patients!) - you will see what a lovely place it is, and how they have gone to a lot of trouble to introduce restful pastel shades, and a lot of pale wood panelling, to make it look less "hospitally." The first photo shows the corner of the reception desk, looking down the further corridor, which has doors off to the right with separate treatment rooms, some of which have couches in them for people to rest on while they have their chemo. You can see the drip trolleys on the left, which are used for the treatments.

Looking back the other way from reception, you can see the wide corridor that also serves as the waiting area. As usual in every hospital waiting room I have ever been in, there are NO spaces to park wheelchairs, with the result that I ALWAYS feel as if I'm in the way! I have written this on numerous feedback sheets but so far nothing has happened to remedy this - considering how many disabled people attend hospitals, I think this is quite an oversight. On the far right of the foreground of this photo you can see the large rubbish bin, the space in front of which has become my favoured parking place! (Make of that what you will, lol!)

Behind the seats in the waiting area are two wide gaps giving access into the two treatment bays. The next picture shows the first one, where I have always gone. On the right, between the windows, you can see a low dividing wall which separates the two areas. The second area has a wide-screen TV on the wall. It looks very odd with no patients sitting in the chairs (you can see one of the recliners in the corner - my preferred seating as they are very comfortable, and the other chairs certainly are not - at least for me!), and the occasional tables which have jars of sweets for people to suck to take away the horrible taste of the chemo. Along the wall, on the white strip, are numerous power points to plug in the drip machines.

Here is Emma, my favourite reception clerk, at the desk. If you look carefully it looks as if she's got three arms. This is because one of the nurses was hiding behing her, unbeknownst to her, and raising two fingers above her head, which you can just see if you look very carefully! Lol!

Finally, here is the group shot my hubby took. I am leaning back with my arms around the two nearest to me, and I look so FAT!!! (OK, I AM fat, but not as fat as I used to be!) You can see how happy everybody looks.

I was sorry that several of the lovely nurses who have looked after me over the past six months were not present today. I shall be emailing one of them with the photo so that she can pass it on to the others. They were all exceptional people, so friendly and encouraging and helpful, and efficient in their work - so sad that they are so busy because there is so much cancer about. They are unfailingly cheerful, remember our names, and give us the very best treatment. As we were leaving, Emma gave me a questionnaire to fill in about what I felt about my treatment, and I gave them a five-star rating on every count, and in the comments section, said that if chemo could ever be considered to be fun, it would be, given the nature of the truly wonderful staff on the unit, and that they all deserved a gold medal with diamonds on it. When I started writing, they all started chipping in with remarks like, "I (Emma) am the most efficient clerk on the unit," and "I am the best nurse," and "I am the most beautiful nurse" etc. etc.!!! Eventually I cried out "Stop! If I start writing that I'll forget someone and they will get upset" lol! We had such a good laugh.

Although I am absolutely 100 percent delighted that my chemo is now finished, I am going to miss going to Ricky Grant and receiving such loving and caring treatment. I shall be going back, though - I have an appointment in six weeks' time for port flushing and bloods, and will probably be returning in the future for further blood tests until I am guaranteed clear of the cancer, so I shall be seeing them all periodically, just not on such a regular basis.

I also want to make more things for the chemo people. I have been thinking about this, and while I simply love to give things away, and would be happy to continue to do this, it occurred to me that if I charged a token amount for each item, the gift would be a double wammy, because the recipient would have something nice to treasure without breaking the bank, and the unit would benefit from more much needed funds, so that they can continue to give others the excellent care that I have received. There is a box on the reception desk with cards in it that people have made, and I could certainly do some for them in my own style, and I could make other items too. I have gained so much from my six months' attendance on the unit and it would be a nice way to put something back, and also an opportunity to call in every now and then and catch up with everybody.

My hubby took me home after this, and I really wasn't feeling too bad. I managed to eat a nice evening meal, and while I do feel slightly peculiar, and have had a little peripheral neuropathy in my hands after touching something cold, it is not there in a big way and I haven't resorted to my gloves. Like last time, I may find that week 1 is pretty good, and I may crash again in week 2, but we shall see.

I think that already, the effects are less severe because my whole attitude has changed now that the treatment has finished. I am feeling so good that phase 3 of my journey is now at an end (phase 1 being preparation for surgery and then the actual operation and hospital stay; phase 2 being learning to manage Kermit, my stoma, and phase 3 being the chemo). Phase 4 can now be called "the recovery phase" when I can really concentrate on getting well. I am convinced that I am going to be OK now; they are all very optimistic at the hospital that all the cancer has gone. I shall do my best with eating the right foods to help my body expell the residue of toxic chemicals from my system, and my positive attitude and determination will also help me along the way.

What a journey this has been! Phase 4 will include the CT scan and further blood tests in the next 4-6 weeks, and then ongoing for the next five years. At some point I shall have to go in to have the port removed, but they will most likely leave it in for a while until they are sure it won't be needed any more, and this means I shall have to return to the Ricky Grant unit for it to be flushed every six weeks if it has not been used. However, during phase 4, I shall be concentrating on getting my life back on track at home, and gradually taking on my previous roles on the domestic front, relying on my hubby on the days when I am feeling not so good - he has had plenty of practice and I am sure he won't mind stepping into the breach when necessary. I am not intending to rush into doing too much and setting myself back, but I shall be sensible and continue to listen to my body.

Amazingly, today, the "Daily Blessing" in my side bar has come up with this:

Friday October 16, 2015

Today's Verse:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13,14 / KJV

How appropriate.

A Quilty Hug

Recently, I gained a new online friend in the form of Maria, who started commenting on my blog. I mentioned how she has donated quilts to a favourite charity in the USA, Happy Chemo! in my last post. She contacted me and said she would like to send me a quilt for comfort during my chemo sessions. As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed by this kindness and accepted with alacrity, although I felt I did need to remind her that I was located in the UK and that the postage may prove too much, but this did not deter her one bit!

Today, my beautiful quilt arrived, and I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself as I struggled to open the box and reveal the treasure within!

Here it is.

Isn’t it stunning and beautiful? I am so, so thrilled with this marvellous gift.

In with the parcel, Maria had put this hilarious postcard for me – a little education for an ignorant Brit, from a full-blooded Southern Belle, on how English should be spoke!

I hope all y’all are as moved as I am by my new friend’s generosity and kindness. She knows only too well what it is like enduring the rigours of chemo, and how much a quilty hug can mean. Hop over to her blog and just take a look at all the beautiful quilts she has made. Not only is she a very skilled quilter, but I love her turn of phrase – she’s an excellent writer too!

Reading about her, and about Happy Chemo! challenged me to do something to bring a little cheer into the lives of my own fellow chemo sufferers, which is why I have started making my little lavender sachets to give them, to bring them the healing and comforting scent of English lavender from our neighbour’s garden.

As I endure the rigours of chemo in the months ahead, I know that as I look at my beautiful quilt and feel its texture and warmth, and revel in its colours and patterns, I shall be comforted and lifted out of myself, and even when I am feeling at my most poorly, to know that I am loved and cared for, and that people all around the world are praying for me, and I have more blessings in my life than I could possibly deserve, and how impossible it is to count them all.

When we hear everyday on the news of all the awful things that people do to each other in this world, it encourages me no end to know that not everybody is like that, and that there are people who reach out across the world and perform acts of kindness to bless others that they hardly know. I have been challenged a lot of late with the knowledge that I really do very little for other people, and how I could be using my own God-given skills and talents to bring some sunshine into the darkness of the lives of others. Thank you, Maria, not just for this wonderful quilt, but for giving me the push I needed to start doing this in a small way. May God bless you.