I have friends...

Hi Everyone,

Today is the first anniversary of my due date. My child, if he had lived, would be turning 1 today. I've taken the day off to work on Bottles of Hope like I did last year (which you can read about here).

This year I've decided to change my approach and yesterday I sent out an e-mail to my claying friends asking if they would join me. Two of them have dropped everything to come see me and they will be arriving in a few hours (which is a very short time to clean up my hobby room so that we can work). One is unable to attend as she's dealing with the grief of recently losing her brother, but has sent her spirit to participate. Another one I haven't heard from but I wouldn't at all be surprised if she showed up on my doorstep.

It turns out that Toronto Sick Kids is able to receive our bottles for the children with cancer. Yesterday when I was contemplating how I wanted to spend the day I thought how I should be having a birthday party for my child. It's supposed to be a day filled with love and laughter, not tears and sorrow. So I've decided to invite my friends over and we will make children themed BOH. I can not think of too many things worse than losing a child and the parents of the children at Sick Kids must be going through their own particular brand of Hell. My heart goes out to them and I hope with our little gift we can at least bring a moment of brightness to others.

I made the guy in this photo last week. He was inspired by the magazine "Stuffed" that my friend Janice had bought. The artist, Diane Koss, makes whimsical stuffed animals that I thought would translate well to clay. You can see a cute video of her work here, and her blog is http://dkoss2.blogspot.com/. I will be making more of these guys since they seem to be a perfect way to use scrap clay.

Anyhow, to get back to my friends, I am fortunate to have these ladies in my life. They have held my hand and their quiet acceptance of my emotions and indignant chatter at when they perceive that I've been threatened by insensitve comments has gone a long way to help me recover in my grief. Others have touched me via long distance, but sometimes there's no substitute for the physical presence of smiles and friendly voices. I am honoured that they are a part of my life.

And the truly wonderful thing is that I met them through claying.

I can't guarantee that there won't be moments of quiet and sorrow today, but I'll be surrounded by women that care and for that I am blessed.

Sandy