Beads brighten patients’ days
Patty Kreuzenstein’s good deeds are worn by many, but her face is known by few.
In the midst of battles with multiple sclerosis and cancer, the 42-year-old created 3,300 beaded necklaces for cancer patients and their families.
“I’m very passionate about it. I think everybody deserves a little sparkle in the darkest of their days,” the Spokane Valley resident said.
The dainty necklaces double as bracelets and demonstrate a solidarity typically seen with pink breast cancer ribbons and yellow Lance Armstrong wristbands.
Made with Love necklaces are displayed along with Kreuzenstein’s personal story in waiting rooms at Cancer Care Northwest offices in Spokane Valley and north Spokane. Patients can select a necklace for free or take one and leave a donation.
Patty Walker, a patient care representative at the Valley clinic, said the display, which holds up to a dozen necklaces, is usually empty after support group meetings.
Patients get excited when there’s a new color, she said, and many enjoy giving them to loved ones.
“We’ve got one family where the daughter wears a different color with every outfit. She comes with her dad for every treatment,” Walker said. “The girls at the north clinic – they can’t keep them in stock.”
Walker said the sentiment behind the jewelry leaves a lasting impression. A father undergoing chemotherapy picked out three necklaces because he wanted each of his daughters to have something to remember him by.
On good days, Kreuzenstein creates up to 12 necklaces. On days when getting out of bed is impossible (and her adult daughter helps wash her hair) she sits in her bed and strings beads until midnight.
“I could lose my mind or do something, but I just sit here making those darned necklaces and praying,” she said. “I guess it’s a blessing for me because I have a purpose in the universe.”
Kreuzenstein prays over every bead as she arranges them in a pattern: 10 beads of one color followed by three accent beads. Colors representing different cancers are accented by white beads and crystals. A silver cross or heart is added to each.
Her beading efforts began in the late 1990s when, as a kitchen worker at Evergreen Middle School, she made necklaces for teenagers going on to high school.
After a brain tumor forced Kreuzenstein to quit her job, doctors found she had multiple sclerosis. Then they discovered essential thrombosis – a blood disease.
“I was terrified. I couldn’t wrap my brain around another thing,” she said. “The last straw was, ‘Oh my God, I’m in a cancer clinic.’ “
While undergoing chemotherapy, she was touched by the kindness of doctors and staff at Cancer Care Northwest’s Valley office and made necklaces to thank them. While working through her own fears, she noticed that other woman were also scared.
So she made a few dozen necklaces for staff to give to chemotherapy patients. The pieces were so appreciated that the staff asked her to make more.
Since starting the project nearly two years ago, Kreuzenstein’s platelets have stabilized somewhat. Because her immune system is challenged, she rarely goes out except to purchase beads. She squeezes supply money from her meager Social Security check.
Walker delivers donations left by patients to Beyond Beads Gallery, the Spokane Valley store where Kreuzenstein shops. Although donations only cover 20 percent of her costs, the money usually arrives when she’s exhausted her personal funds and is low on beads.
Walker gets choked up when talking about the impact of Kreuzenstein’s kindness. “You get pretty emotional. She’s just a blessing. She really is.”