03/17/2021
I continue to have people call about the shop. New people who are interested in quilting. Unfortunately or maybe it was fortunate I had to close the shop due to the pandemic which shut everything down. When you sales hit rock bottom you can’t pay rent and utilities on a building. So the shop closed on March 30, 2020. Mr husband had purchased a she shed for me so I could continue to do what I love quilting. The week after I closed was not pleasant. I had to move all of my inventory and my machines and discovered I had more than would fit into my shed. I bought a trailer to help with the move and we filled it up too. It was about 6 x 14 and it is a concession type trailer with a large serving window. I decided to buy that because my husband is a gardener and sells our excess produce at a roadside stand and I hoped this would make his life easier with a place to keep and sell his produce. We filled it up with fabric and other quilting products. I still had a lot of fabric that had to be moved from my rented place immediately or I’d have to pay another month rent. I bought another trailer to store the fabric. This time a 6 x 8 and it was filled also as was my SUV which was unloaded several times into my house. Pandaemonium followed!! Then 2 days later I got THE telephone call saying my test results showed that I had a fairly rare form of cancer and they were referring me to a oncologist in Chattanooga. Hearing that diagnosis knocked my feet out from under me. I went to the oncologist and they started treatment. First chemo to shrink the tumors. It worked wonderfully well but took a big toll on my body. I couldn’t eat or sleep for months. Next came surgery to remove the remainder of the tumors and adjacent lymph nodes since they were involved too. Then starts the healing process from what I had been through but it was recommended that I get radiation treatments and more chemotherapy to be sure everything was gone. I did that and remained very sick and weak throughout that time. I wasn’t even able to be in my shed. Next I developed a lymphocell in the surgical area. Not something anyone could see but it just kept getting larger and then painful as the fluid was both pressing on nerves and increasing the size of the space and I had to have that fluid drained. Not pleasant as it is done by inserting a needle into the area and draining the fluid. I have had 650cc of fluid removed at one time so basically just over a pint of fluid. I have been having to get that drained every 5-6 weeks since then. I am finally no longer losing weight and getting some of my strength back. Occasionally I will open my shed and invite people to visit and purchase fabric if they want. Sort of like a yard sale. I’ve even been able to get the big trailer empty so my husband can use it for his produce this summer if he is able to garden. That’s another story. I’m back to doing a little sewing at home and quilting at the shed infrequently but hopefully I’ll be able to do more in the near future. Best wishes to all and happy quilting!!
