Creative Healing Places: Stories of Hope, Comfort, and Inspiration

When the doctors told my husband, "Your father has brain cancer," our world went dark. Harry was a bright light in our family-funny, out-going, and always ready with bear hugs and jokes. We were filled with questions. This heartwarming book shares the silver lining legacy inspired by accompanying Harry during his nine-month battle with the disease that ultimately claimed his life. That legacy became the Healing Environments Program we created for the Saint Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania in 2007. This program relied on the creative abilities of off-site crafters who generously volunteered their time and talents creating handmade items of comfort which were offered as gifts to seriously ill patients by on-site volunteers. Over nine years, we visited more than 26,000 patients, gifting them with 9,329 afghans, shawls, and quilts, plus 18,250 additional comfort items such as neck roll pillows, mastectomy pillows, and hair-loss caps. It is my sincere desire that you find within these pages an awakening to ways you can reach out in compassion to help those you know and love or to provide comfort to perfect strangers. I also hope you discover some answers to the question, "What can I possibly do to help?" And in finding those answers, may you also be blessed to discover your own 'healing place.' It is said, a candle loses nothing of its brilliance by lighting another candle. As you offer yourself in service to others, some aspect of your life will inevitably be healed.