I read a flyer on Facebook about a first cousin who had optic neuritis and was told by his physicians he would go blind within six months.  They were having a motorcycle rally and live auction to help defray the costs of his medical expenses and to help him get a service dog.  This struck me as interesting – not only that I hadn’t seen nor heard much about this cousin in years but also, optic neuritis is a common symptom of someone with multiple sclerosis.  I am checked regularly by an ophthalmologist and thus far do not have any symptoms of optic neuritis.  I asked his wife if he has MS and she said the doctors said he has a “slight case” of it.  I am totally clueless as to what that means, but research indicates MS is not genetic – though, I have seen it in a number of families so it makes me (and this cousin) wonder if that is truly the case. 

I am not close to this cousin and haven’t seen him since probably 1976 at my dad’s funeral.  I do visit with his sister every now and again on Facebook, but again, it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen her.  When we were little kids in elementary school, my dad’s oldest brother and his wife lived on a farm in Iowa.  Although many of our relatives on Dad’s side of the family got together on the weekends at Grandma’s house, Uncle Charles and his family didn’t participate.  So, every couple of months, Dad would load all of us into the car and we’d head over to Uncle Charles’ farm so he could spend time with his brother and we got to play with their six kids.  The kids were all older than us (probably late teens while we were in elementary school) but I do remember this tomboy enjoying playing with their five boys on their farm.

So, I volunteered to make a “Crown Royal” quilted tote bag for the live auction out of old “Crown Royal” bags that I had saved from my pre-marriage, pre-kid bartender days:

It will be interesting to follow along with this cousin to see how his “slight case” of MS compares to mine.  Obviously, he has different symptoms than I do at this point.  I pray that I do not end up with optic neuritis, of course.  And I also pray that he doesn’t have to deal with most of the symptoms that I deal with on a daily basis. 

I feel as if I’ve done something worthwhile for a disease that is robbing me of my brain cells and robbing a cousin of his eyesight.  It’s not much but I forced myself to make it despite MS rearing its ugly head by making me dizzy, giving me a migraine and having to take two days to complete this project when before I had MS I would have whipped this up in an hour or so. 

What causes do you support with your quilting?