Page 11 - WL-Spring-Magazine-2020

It’s About HELPING OTHERS
Sharing Comfort
Chapter 883 Algonac, Michigan
Each panel contains a
name. Some also
include dates, types of
cancer, or a message of love
and hope.
Each panel is as unique as the
person who placed it. Yet wherev-
er the quilt is displayed it brings a
singular message of comfort and
shared humanity.
The quilt is a creation of the
Piece to Peace Quilters. Many
members of Woman’s Life Chapter
883 from Algonac, Michigan, are
members of the quilting group.
The chapter has also held various
fundraisers to help the group buy
supplies, storage, promotion, and
transportation to various events
and locations where the quilt will
be on display.
Chapter member Angela
Rochon says to date — with
matching funds from Woman’s
Life — the chapter has raised
more than $7,000 to support the
quilters and their cancer quilt
project.
“We assist those struggling
with their cancer or that of their
loved ones. We help them to write
indelibly inked messages on fab-
ric swatches,” Rochon says. “We
help them navigate the re-
cord-keeping system so they can
easily find their loved one’s
swatch in the future. Many indi-
viduals and families return
whenever and wherever the can-
cer quilt is exhibited. They find
renewed comfort in seeing and
touching their fabric swatch mes-
sages.”
Within each of
us are the loved and
the lost. We may be
complete strangers,
but our common
humanity connects.
This is the time when
listening is loving.
Angela Rochon
Chapter treasurer Cindy Babisz
says the quilt is an excellent
example of the kind of communi-
ty-centric care that drew her to
Woman’s Life to begin with.
“Linda Minter said, ‘We have
fun, raise money, and give it away.’
I was hooked,” Babisz says. “This
is something we can give back that
you really can’t put a price on.”
For many, the deceptively sim-
ple task of sharing their story is
incredibly important.
Rochon collected many of the
stories for a book about the quilt
and people whose names adorn
it. The book, Piece to Peace Cancer
Quilt, is available on Amazon.
“How many opportunities do
any of us ever have to speak of our
largest losses, our deepest fears,
our precious memories?” she says.
“Within each of us are the loved
and the lost. We may be complete
strangers, but our common hu-
manity connects. This is the time
when listening is loving.”
In particular, Rochon recalls an
elderly farmer describing the day
his mother died when he was a
boy. “He said that writing her fab-
ric swatch homage, which the
seamstresses immediately quilt-
ed to the panel quilt, ‘Brought my
mum back to me,’” she says.
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