Cherie's Progress

I visited Cherie on Wednesday, as I do every week. I'm happy to say that she has art cards taped to her walls and had a great big smile on her face when she mouthed (she cannot speak due to the tracheotomy and the ventilator) "I am getting TONS of great cards, THANK YOU!" We had a great visit. I'm happy to report that she was in good spirits and looked much better than last week. She was smiling and "talking" to me for about an hour.

What more could you ask for? One card of note that was pinned up was my dear friend Robin Maria Pedrero's work in pastel. Many thanks to all of you who have taken the time to send a Random Card of Kindness to Cherie, you are making her smile!

They have gotten her up into a wheelchair a couple of times and she's been able to sit and be disconnected from the ventilator for a few hours at a time. Shepherd Center in Atlanta has accepted her for rehabilitation after evaluating her in person last week. Now we just need to get a Medicaid approval for an extension of benefits (they limit the time in to 45 days, Cherie's accident was September 30 and she has been in ICU since) as well as an approval for FL state benefits to extend to GA. Shepherd Center is on of the best spinal cord rehabilitation facilities in the country. They will teach her how to adapt to her limitations with specialized equipment.

Please keep Cherie in your thoughts and keep the cards and notes coming!

Random Cards of Kindness

Trick or Treat, 11x14, original fabric art, ©Libby Fife

In my efforts to procure art cards for Cherie, I have also benefitted. It has made me happy to receive all your requests for her address, to realize how many people are still willing to send a note to someone they don't even know.

Yesterday I received a super nice Halloween note card from Libby Fife (see her website here). Libby sent Cherie a note card and decided to send me one as well.

Here is what she said:
"Just writing to say thank you for all of your wonderful writing and views of your work on your blog. I do enjoy getting to see what you are working on. Hope your Halloween is a fun and safe one. Take care and thank you again"

How nice, I think Libby has truly made my day with her double act of kindness!

If you are interested in purchasing Libby's Halloween note cards, email her!

Cherie's family is looking at a possible move to Shepherd Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation. You may still email me for her sister's address to send your own Random Card of Kindness.

Cherie's Progress

Cherie Stannard

I just wanted to update you and say thanks again for the outpouring of cards, letters, artwork, and hand made books that have come from my "art peeps" to Cherie's ICU room at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pearce, FL.

I visited Cherie again this past Wednesday and she told me that the notes and cards have really made a difference in brightening her day. Her Aunt Barbara is putting the return address of all on the back of what has been sent. Cherie wants to send a note to everyone and thank them for their thoughtfulness.

I think she has a lot of note writing ahead of her!

Many thanks again for keeping her in your thoughts. Please email me for the address if you wish to send a card, she is still in ICU and on a ventilator with a C5 spinal cord injury. She can feel being poked in two toes on one foot, which is great, but she still has no movement from her shoulders down. Her next step is to a rehabilitation facility (potentially in Tampa, FL) but she has to get off the ventilator and breathe on her own before she can make that next step.

Your kind words and thoughts mean so much in this very difficult time. I thank you from the bottom of my heart

Cherie's Progress

left to right: Michelle, Cherie, Me, Eileen, Graduation from WHS, 1986

I'm happy to tell you that Cherie is making some progress. She can feel the pressure of being touched on her arms and all the way down her legs! She's looking much better and in good spirits. I visited her at the Lawn Wood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pearce, FL yesterday.

The card writing campaign has brought tears to her eyes, I was lucky enough to be able to read her some of your cards and notes and she cried when I told her that so many artists friends had offered to make her hand made cards, and so many people had offered to send letters and notes!

She truly appreciates all the efforts, and this is going to be a long road to recovery for her. There is plenty of time for you still to send notes and well wishes.

email me for the mailing address, and THANK YOU for making a difference.

Amelia Island Workshop and Card Campaign

First let me start by saying a great big THANK YOU to all of you who have emailed me for Cherie's mailing address and offered to send hand made cards and notes to my childhood friend. The latest on Cherie is that she will have a tracheotomy and a G-tube surgery on Sunday. Keep her in your thoughts and know that she has been moved into her own private ICU hospital room. This means she now has a window and a WALL for hanging photos and cards and art on.

The card shown here was sent by Jason McCollum of North Carolina. Thank you Jason! I'll be visiting Cherie in the coming week and will let you all know how her room is and how many cards she has received.

I am in Amelia Island, FL this weekend teaching collage to nine wonderful students! Today we spent the day painting papers and preparing them for collage, which we will start bright and early tomorrow morning! The weather is beautiful and the students are very motivated. Pat even invited me for dinner at her beautiful home this evening, which was a wonderful time. Thank you Pat and Jack!

Calling All Artists

On the left in this photo is my best friend (me on the right) the day we graduated from HS in 1986. My friend Cherie has been part of my life since she lived around the corner from me in kindergarten. We met each other in the neighborhood and when her parents divorced and she moved away into apartments, we were still connected through public school. We were lab partners in middle school science class, and we hated gym class equally! Her last name being Stannard and mine being St. Hilaire, we ended up with adjacent desks in high school homeroom for four years.

Cherie's mom was a pastel artist. She was the first person in my life who ever took me to an art museum. One weekend when I was sleeping over with Cherie (which I did a lot) her mom packed us egg salad sandwiches and drove us to Connecticut to see real art, by real artists, in real life.

These are things you don't forget.

Now we are 42, my friend Cherie and I have managed to stay in touch all these years. Last week Cherie was in a terrible car accident. She rolled her Jeep and suffered a broken neck. Cherie, my rock, my one stable friend through the tumultuous years of my childhood, is helpless in a hospital bed.

Why am I writing this? I want to ask you, any of you, all of you who are artists, or just creative in your own way... would you consider making a card, a sketch or a scribble and joining me in a creative letter writing project to her? I want to send Cherie a hand written note or hand-made card every day starting today. Cherie's sister Susan and her sister in law Alison have agreed to bring my letters to ICU and read them to Cherie.

Wold you join me, even though you don't know her?
If you knew her, you'd love her like I have, all my life.
And she would so much appreciate our creativity.

Email me for a mailing address
thank you so much,
Elizabeth