Sissy

I think it was three years ago I got an email from someone who wanted to use one of my patterns to make a quilt to raffle off for Relay.  Of course I gave her permission but had to ask more.  Where was she, which Relay, etc.  I really don’t think she ever answered my questions at first, but a few months later she sent me an email telling me they had raised a lot, I forget how much but remember I was impressed, and told me a little bit about herself.  She’d been quilting as long as I had, loved purple and had done Relay since it started in her area of California. 

After her event was over she emailed me all about it, and then we started an email conversation about quilting and Relay.  She would email me questions off and on throughout the year, and before I knew it she was looking for another pattern to buy to make another quilt for Relay. 

Last year her team raised over $14,000 and the quilt had raised almost half of it… I was impressed again. 

One Monday morning in my spam mail I found one with the subject News about Sissy.  It was from one of her teammates telling me that Sissy had passed away from a cancer related ailment. 

In all of our email conversations Sissy never said she was a survivor, or that her cancer had come back and she was once again fighting hard.  She never told me she was Relaying for herself, but that she was Relaying for friends and family members who were fighting and who had lost their battle. 

I sent a note back to the teammate and thanked her for letting me know.  She replied “Sissy will be missed by many, a family of six children, five grown up and starting their own families, and one who will graduate from college in May, her teammates and her quilting pals and so many more”

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate cancer.