With this being the end of October, breast cancer awareness month, and in honor of my friend, Peggy, I am writing this blog to share how much I love her.   We’ve been friends since high school, about thirty-eight years.

My very dear friend is a breast cancer survivor.  Shortly after Peggy was diagnosed in 2017, she underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.  It took several months for Peggy to finish treatment, and she’s doing great.  Cancer free!   Through all of this; she greeted everyone with a happy face.  Peggy never complained, and more than once, she comforted others, including me, that had a hard time dealing with it.

Within a couple of weeks of finding out that Peggy had cancer, my daughter, grand children, and I hit the road for a fifteen-hour trip to her home state to spend a few days with my friend and her family.  We hugged, talked, laughed, and looked at our (one) tenth grade yearbook which we share.  I taught her how to pour paint, and she showed us around town.  It was a great visit.  I was sad for my friend when my daughter and I left to drive home.  I was worried about her, and what she was about to face. I’m not always the best at hiding things but did my best not to let her know how I felt.

I soon returned to my normal activities which included painting.  But I thought about Peggy every day, and still do.  With painting, I mostly focus on my acrylic fluid art with a goal of nothing more than creating something new and pretty.  On one particular day, after returning from my trip, I started pouring paints in the shape of breast cancer ribbons, of course with tears in my eyes, and when the painting dried I noticed a change in my work.  It had new meaning.  My friend, Peggy, became a part of my work. Since that day in July 2017, I’ve added at least one ribbon in every one of my pours. You won’t see the ribbons, because in fluid art, shapes continuously change until the paint begins to set and start to dry.  But these ribbons are there in every one of my paintings and so my love for my friend is also there.

I taught a small class today, maybe twenty people.  I poured five or six ribbons in my two paintings today.  It was my first demonstration and I proudly told the class about the ribbons and why I pour them.  It’s the first time I’ve shared this with anyone outside of close family.   I pour them in honor of my friend, Peggy.