Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Bittersweet

I've been in the studio working this week—something I love to do. Unfortunately, this work has been bittersweet for me. A family member—a nine-year-old child—has an inoperable brain tumor. I have my own little girl now and the thought of their daughter's struggle is painful.

We've been lucky—the family has been keeping us posted via the site Caring Bridge, so even though they're miles away we know what's going on without having to ask. M began losing some hair some weeks back and started getting a little self conscious about it. When I read that I thought, Well, there's something I can do something about. So I began my journey into making hats for a girl who loves pink.

I finished them up today, put them in a pretty pink and black hat box, and got them to the post office as fast as I could. I hope they'll bless me with a fun fashion photo shoot, but in the meantime, here are a couple of the hats that I sent along. I hope she loves them.

2 comments:

Aimee said...

How awful! Anything I can do? Please let me know if I can help with tutus or dolls or anything that might be a bright spot in such a terrible situation.

Anonymous said...

I applaud your attitude of helping others learn millinery - This (being helpful to new designers) is the main theme of Tim Gunn's new book - so glad to see it talked about and in practice. When I was a milliner, I always helped and always requested that people I helped pass it along - too often just the opposite happened.

I worked with a lot of people who were going through chemo. Often the exposed scalp feels like it is on fire and everything that touches it hurts. I used to buy lightweight cotton scarves from here: http://www.dharmatrading.com/cs.html and make various hats from them or people would wear them under the hats I made them. They were silky soft, didn't make the head hot, dyed easily and were great for head wraps and for making sewn hats from. You can even buy scarfs large enough to easily make adorable little frocks to match. Her whole body may feel like it's burning and that will help all over :-).

If they haven't yet, advise the parents to make sure they know what sort of tumor this is. My son's gf lost her dad to a brain tumor that turned out to be an extremely rare form of neurofibromatosis that attacked from the inside. Even after doctors figured out what it was, they didn't tell the family. If she has this, those who are related to her should be tested and monitored as it is genetic. We know two people who have had brain tumors - one married to a nurse and the other to a doctor, and neither were advised on what to expect in terms of personality changes, etc. Researching these things and helping find ways to cope can be another way to help the family.

Best of luck to this little girl and her family. It's a tough time, but people DO survive cancer, every day.