Last week, we concluded our Good Cheer Giveaway with 5 winners. Now, we get to share their stories with you. Happy holidays, and keep spreading the Good Cheer!
SHERI’S TALE OF GOOD CHEER
I have to say thank you to Fat Quarter Shop. I have enjoyed my two Quilt Clubs more than you will ever know. Also, I hope this isn’t too long, I just couldn’t write it any less. I have two special people, which might be out of the norm.
First and Foremost, I have to thank God for granting me this time on earth to see my children grow and to have what I am most thankful for, my very precious grandchildren!
Several years back I was hurt on the job. They fired me and I had three surgeries and no income after 38 years of working. I lost the ability to ever work again.
My grandson was born in 2003. What a precious gift he was and still is. My daughters are and always will be my babies, however having grandchildren is an unexplainable feeling. He will never know how he helped Nana forever. My grandson is just beautiful, caring, and polite, and at that time in my life when I would see him he would do whatever it took to get to Nana, which made me feel like I could just melt.
As an infant he’d fill me with such joy, it’s indescribable. Even when I was unable to get out of bed, my daughter would bring him to me to take a nap. Oh my, what that was like to have him lay next to me, watching him sleep. For the next several years, every time I was able to see him (they lived in Los Angeles & I lived in Northern California) he lit up my soul. It broke my heart when the doctor told me that I would have to stop traveling so much, that I was doing more damage than good to my neck, and yet being stubborn, I did go to LA several times more times and paid for it the hard way.
Well to my surprise, my son-in-law requested a transfer home and I cried like a big 53 year-old baby. They moved home near me, and with that they had my first granddaughter. Oh, what that felt like was the same as with my grandson, but different since I had a little girl to play with and hopefully sew for.
Now they both spend a lot of time with me at my home, and we play games, work on the computer, etc. Long story short is that I thought there was nothing left for me to do. Those kids changed all that, and I am very thankful that they are in my life. Within the last 5 years, when I thought I couldn’t get out of bed, I have done that and played with my grandkids! The chronic pain is there to stay, but it’s funny what a smiling child can do for someone. Even when that child is crying, your heart is still helped by that child.
My granddaughter is a Nana’s girl. She sits next to Nana when I sew, and I mean, this little girl rearranges my thread, but not once does she tear stuff up. I now make them blankets, quilts, and I made a little girl’s outfit — the first in 30 years. And boy, does she look cute!
Now to top this story off of giving thanks to two beautiful, caring, wonderful humans, my daughter is having a third child in January, and I have just gotten a business license to make and sell baby items on the internet! If someone would have told me I’d be playing with grandchildren and going to baseball games 5 years ago, I would have never believed it, nor would my doctor. Now my goal is to get off my meds and be able to take a trip to the Grand Canyon with all three of my grandchildren one day.
Thank you for allowing me to send this. It makes me all the more thankful when I read this and remember all the good things these babies have done for me, and they don’t even know it. I am so blessed with my children and grandchildren and so thankful. I see my grandkids almost every day and my life has been so much more full.
Sheri Whiteley
Murphys, CA