The Quilt that Soothed Us

I wrote a post once called The People We Met Along the Way . It was all about the incredible people we have met who have helped with Joey’s Histio journey. In that post I thanked random people who heard of our situation and decided to help us by finding us a stair lift or a ramp. The local magic shop that took the time to meet with Joey. A former teacher of mine who stopped by to do chemistry experiments with him. I thanked the medical staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Circus Mojo for entertaining us in the waiting room and all the others who have made this journey easier. I wrote that post seven months after the diagnosis and surgery. And here we are almost 16 months post surgery and I find myself being thankful again for so many things.

I am still thankful for all of our friends and family who have gone above and beyond, as well as the new people who came into our lives and helped us in some way or another. But so many other people and things have entered our lives, making our journey easier, since the day I wrote that post.

Most recently, it was a thing that made me thankful. Joey basically suffers from post traumatic stress disorder now. Histio is so serious and unpredictable that Joey constantly fears it will return. So we have been going to counseling at Children’s Hospital. Joey’s counselor is a wonderful woman who seems to be making headway with Joey. But counseling is hard. It brings up a lot of emotions and memories that Joey (and I) don’t really want to deal with.

Joey was really upset when we left counseling on Friday. We were walking through the hospital, heading to the main entrance, when I decided to take Joey into a small corridor that we had never been in before. As Andi I were unsuccessfully trying to console Joey, I saw this quilt. It was then that we saw this quilt (sorry the photo isn’t better – it was in a glass case):

All three of us were immediately drawn to it. We couldn’t stop talking about it. We spent at least 10 minutes looking at it, finding all the different characters and discussing the amount of time and creativity that went into this. About halfway through our discussion I realized Joey was no longer upset. He was smiling, laughing and enjoying our conversation.

I wonder if whoever made and donated this quilt had any idea when they made it how it would impact the lives of the families at the hospital. I hope to find a way to let this person know how it effected our lives.

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