A bit about my Mom

Although my mom has Fibromyalgia as well as other forms of Arthritis she makes cards (and does a lot more).  She recyles used cards into new cards!  I think she does a great job.  She takes them to one of the Senior Living Complexes locally each year. As well, others get in touch with her for their card needs.  It takes a LOT of time and imagination. It's really a hobby.  She and 'Black Rose' are shown here working on yet another project. 

My mom was a stay at home mom for most of my childhood until dad had to change professions, then she too worked outside of the home.  She later became a Free-Lance Market Researcher which enabled her to be home once again. I rather liked having someone home when I got there.  Although we were fortunate - we never came home to an empty house (latch-key kids we weren't). 

Black Rose has also been fortunate (although she may not always think so) in that there has always been one of us home when she gets here from School.  For years, after working the graveyard shift,  I woulld  get out of bed just prior to the bus's arrival.

So, if you have any cards that people have given you and don't know what to do with. Or, even if you have received a card and you think it's got a "nifty" little jingle.   Let me know- I know mom would appreciate them for her next creation.  Thanks Mom. 

One million Canadians have Fibromyalgia.

Taken from the Times & Transcript's Life & Times Section: (with my own notes added)

May 12 was Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. Just to show how little is known about this terrible affliction, my spell check just picked it up as being an incorrectly spelled word. Even the computer doesn't know what it is.

"Every day is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day for my daughter. She lives in chronic, often severe, pain every day, 24 hours per day.
Today is a good time to encourage fibromyalgia awareness, as springtime is one of the worst seasons for the sufferers of this disease. Like other forms of arthritis, changes in seasons bring on even more excruciating pain and "flare ups" are common. Though not really labeled as an arthritic condition, it is believed to be part of that disease group, but it also mimics many characteristics of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and MS. Continuous nerve supersensitivity is my simplified definition.
This disease affects not only the sufferer, but her/his family and friends as well.
As a mother, it tears at your heart, because your child is in pain and there is nothing you can do. The first time I recognized that my daughter was having extraordinary trouble with pain was when she was 19-years-old.
She would be in tears begging me to rub the pain out of her hands, but no matter how long I massaged, the pain wouldn't go away. Then one day, she asked me not to unbutton her blouses when I washed them because her fingers "wouldn't work" to fasten them up again.
She would go out dancing for an evening, and wouldn't be able to get out of bed the next day. Nineteen-year-olds should be dancing, they should be enjoying life --