Cheryl’s Memory
I sit looking out of the kitchen window trying to visualize how she looked. She was so pretty, blonde curly hair, blue-green eyes, a wonderful smile but the clarity of her inner beauty came with her voice and laughter. I can barely remember her voice she was always happy and the sweet way she talked was like music. No matter what the weather each time she called, she brought sunshine into my heart. Oh, Lord how I miss her, today is the fifth anniversary of her death; a dreadful death by breast cancer, Cheryl put up a valiant fight, it took a long painful two-year and half years she fought hard for her life; it was a brave struggle. She finally let go. Leaving behind those who loved her, we all felt her pain we all suffered with her right up to the day she let go. Her husband and two children have never come to grips with her passing. This week will be hard on them.
Grief is an action it has to find a place to go and taking your eyes off your pain and helping others is a survival skill.
I sought to find comfort in volunteering. I am a quilter and I heard of a group forming to both celebrate the love of quilting and to be a force for fighting Breast Cancer. The funds raised would go to supporting patients in our own community. I joined the Gig Harbor Quilt Festival. Their cause is Breast Cancer; they raise money for local Breast cancer patients all the while promoting the love of quilting in our community. There are so many fundraisers where the money collected goes outside of your community or even state they collect it for research and only a portion comes back to the giving community.
There are so many women standing in front of their mirrors and feeling that strange lump, they have no insurance and no idea what to do next. That is where GHQF come in we have funds to provide free screening, counseling and so much more. We have raise over $157,000. Every penny stays in our community.
I became the Silent Auction Chair, the first year my silent auction made $900, last year we made $10,000 on the Silent Auction alone, wow is all I can say. This year I stepped down and work in a supporting roll, my heart will always belong to GHQF.
I learned the secret of giving/volunteering while leading a support group, I thought I was helping the patients but soon learned they were healing my spirit and I was getting better.
There is magic in giving of yourself to others; a magic you ca not find anywhere else.
We also have a group of women that meet every other Tuesday they make Comfort quilts for the patients of a local Oncologist. Just picture yourself going to chemotherapy for the first time and having a nurse rap a bright quilt around you, and saying “This quilt is for your recovery; it is a gift from people who care about you.” The sad thing is we cannot keep up with the volume of new patients; we live in what seems to be an epidemic state that is why getting that Mammogram is so important. Have you had yours lately?
The phone finally rings I suspect it will be my granddaughter she always calls on the anniversary of her mothers death, we will probably talk for an hour or so, maybe even cry a little. Grieving stays in your broken heart, the act of giving of yourself relieves the pressure but the pain never goes away.
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