In early February, my husband and I were just catching our breath after boxing up 30 years of business to become semi-retired. We had shut the doors on our old location and planned to start something new in a much smaller space closer to home.
Passport in hand, I was ready to travel. Everywhere! I was excited to book a trip with my mother to Holland when the news about COVID-19 in China began to take over the news cycle.
Then my first son, Kamran, told us he had something to tell us. I thought he was going to announce that he had met someone special. Instead, he dropped the bomb that he had Lymphoma, and it was bad. And as we found out the next week, it was stage 4 bad.
It’s been a rollercoaster for 7 months. We went into immediate lockdown. Though we were thankful we no longer had a business to worry about, it got a lot worse before it got better. If you read my blog back in June, you could tell I was disheartened and in a “blah” state of mind. At the beginning of the summer, I began to pick back up the pieces and get into a new routine.
However, Kamran’s health was always at the forefront of my mind. He had his last chemo in July. It was a very, very, VERY long August as we waited for his CAT scan and results. And then he had to have a PET scan, and we had to wait another long couple of weeks for those results. Though the “stress folding” made my quilting space more organized, my brain was cluttered with worries and worst-case scenarios.
But I am so pleased to tell you all that he is 100% cancer-free! It is so amazing I can hardly process it. Every day feels so big and open. And despite COVID, the future looks wonderful.
I want to thank you all for all the kind wishes and support that were sent my way. I have no idea how I would have made it through and stayed strong for my son without all your words of care and kindness. It has meant the world to me, and I’ll never forget it.
The world is a very different place in September 2020. We are still relatively isolated. I’m honestly not very practiced in the protocols of COVID while out in the world. Other than the bagel store and the Dollar Store, my life has been pretty self-contained. I made a couple of socially isolated events during the summer. I find it incredibly hard not to give hugs to my family and friends.
I also have good news concerning Just Get It Done Quilts and my Youtube channel.
Starting on September 21, I am starting Karen’s Quilt Circle. This is a video series of interviews with specialists in the quilting world. We’ll find out about their journey and how they have made their quilting hobby their own. My regular weekly video is designed to be consumed in a coffee break; this series is longer between 30-45 minutes. So you can leave it playing in the background as you’re making dinner or cutting/piecing a quilt block. It might even make seam ripping more enjoyable!
My first guest is Anita Zobens from Threadworks.
I have been thrilled to interview these fantastic quilters. I know you can’t be in the room with us, but hopefully, this is the next best thing. You can find Karen’s Quilt Circle videos on my YouTube channel.