Sandra MacKenzie-Cioppa, RN, CNM, is a fiber artist and retired nurse midwife. She focuses on human rights, especially those of women and children. She is also a breast cancer survivor.

Artist’s Statement

Look closely, almost hidden within the fiber art, at the spider above the right breast. I’m now ten years past creating this artwork.

My grandson, then 7, was super loving throughout my chemo, fatigue, and hair loss. But about two months into my recovery when my hair was just coming in again, he quietly refused to sit near me. His parents and sister asked why, but he wouldn’t explain. He rejected me for nearly a year, and it just about broke my heart. That was the worst part of my cancer.

It lasted until they visited for Thanksgiving. When it was time to go home, my grandson got into the car with his parents, then rolled down the window and asked to stay. He was back by my side.

In the following years, none of us ever asked him about it. Then, during one of his spring break visits, we were making kouign-amann (a sweet Brittany pastry), our “Damn it, we’ll get it right eventually” recipe. He suddenly asked “Did you have to have chemo?” That was the first, and so far only time he, or I, brought it up.

It got me thinking about the kids who go through cancers with their parents, sibs, and grands. Their mystery, for me, is the fabric of this quilt.