This is Serena. She’s a 9 year old who has multiple special needs and disabilities. She does, however, love to help her mom (Erin) and Mommom (her word for grandma) Wolfe work on crafty things. She physically can’t do most crafts, but she can help select fabrics, yarns, ribbons, etc. She especially loves to hold the extra pieces to make sure they don’t get lost or fall on the floor.
She found out about The 70273 Project when she overheard her mom and mommom talking about it. When she heard them asking each other if they would be making quilt blocks, Serena piped in with a bossy “Uhh, yes!”. So on we went.
Serena helped pick the red fabric, the other materials, and supervised the block making. She, like Mom and Mommom, are glad to show support for The 70273 Project, knowing how even in today’s world, people with disabilities can be poorly treated. At birth, doctors told Erin to “Just let her be. She won’t make it anyway.” Upon discharge from the NICU unit six weeks later, another doctor told Erin, “Pick which vegetable you want. She won’t ever know anything or be more than a vegetative state. Go home and look for her to die tomorrow.” After a 3-month hospital stay, Serena went home on hospice at the send of 2015 with a warning that she would be lucky to see 2016 roll in a week later. So we know how many red X’s we have now . . . and would have had if we’d been alive in 1940.
Blocks made by Erin, Serena, and Karen
And now meet Serena’s mom, Erin . . .
My name is Erin Bross, and I’ve been quilting by hand since I was 10 years old. My mom, Karen Wolfe, taught herself to quilt, and I picked i up. Mom learned of The 70273 Project through an online quilting group she belongs to, and she immediately shared it with Serena and me.
Seeing how Serena and I have been treated the last nine years ticks me off, and knowing what happened in the 1940s makes me madder still. So I choose to make as many blocks as possible with Serena, not only to honor and remember the lost individuals and support any living family, but also to honor Serena, my uncle, and others who are present day survivors fighting doctors and discrimination in today’s world.
When not quilting, I am a single, stay-at-home mom to Serena and run two craft shops on Etsy filled with items I’ve made and that Serena helped supervise and/or test out.
Thank you again for taking on this project!
Erin and Serena Bross
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I thank you, Erin and Serena and Karen for becoming part of The 70273 Project. Please tell Serena “Hey” for me and deliver the kiss I”m blowing to her right now. We’d love it if you’d keep us updated, too. May Serena continue to shine beauty into the world as nobody but Serena can. xo, Jeanne
Here are other places you can find (and support) Erin and Serena:
Twitter
Facebook
OtherItemsFor11Q.etsy.com
SoapsForSerena.etsy.com
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And here are other places you can find (and support) The 70273 Project:
Shop with Amazon Smile and support The 70273 Project.
Subscribe to the blog (where all information is shared).
Join the English-speaking Facebook group – our e-campfire – where you can talk to other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.
Join the French-speaking Facebook group – our other e-campfire – where you can chat with other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.
Like the Facebook page where you can check in for frequent updates.
Get folks to help celebrate your birthday by making blocks and/or donating bucks.
Follow the pinterest board for visual information.
Post using #the70273project on Instagram. (Please tag me, too, @whollyjeanne, so I don’t miss anything.)
Tell your friends what you want for your birthday.
And if you haven’t yet made some blocks, perhaps you’d like to put some cloth in your hands and join us.
Or maybe you’d like to gather friends and family, colleagues or students, club or guild members, etc. together and make a group quilt.
I’m so pleased to meet you both, Serena and Erin, and even more pleased that you’re here with us in this magical project of Jeanne’s xx