A few weeks ago my grandmother went for some medical tests and they discovered she had colon cancer. It was a bit of a shock to everyone of course. But the doctor assured her that it was caught early on and that it should be totally treatable. On May 8th she underwent surgery to remove the affected portion of her colon.

Today I spoke to Grandma on the phone. She is still in the hospital but doing exceptionally well. The surgery went off without a hitch, the doctors were able to remove all of the cancer and they are convinced it hasn’t spread. There was no need for a colostomy bag and she’s even having regular bowel movements already. She was told she probably isn’t going to need chemo, depending on how things develop in the next little while. All in all, things went way better than we could have hoped and everyone is very relieved.

Since she lives completely across the country from me I couldn’t wish her a Happy Mother’s Day in person, nor could I be there to support her through this cancer journey she’s being going through. So to make up for it I kept her in my thoughts today and spent the entire day scrapping about her. 

So without further ado, here is my little tribute to my Grandma:

(images are clickable if you want to see credits or close-ups)

That is her in the hospital last week, with her boyfriend Stanley by her side.

Searching through my photo stash for pics of her I found these two group shots. It’s her with her 5 kids at two different points in time. I thought it was kind of funny how similar the two shots are in composition! I think one of the things that happens when someone you love becomes ill is it really strikes you how short life really is and how we shouldn’t take anything for granted. That’s kind of the sentiment in this one.

And this one is my fave that I made today:

She is an incredibly talented seamstress/knitter/all-purpose crafter so I got really excited when I saw these two kits (Sweet Notions and In Vogue) with all these fun sewing-related papers and elements. They really helped me capture her essence for this layout. I love how it turned out. I think I will have it printed (for both her and me!)

So those are the ones I made today but I also went and dug out all the layouts I had done of her in the past:

And finally, since I couldn’t neglect my own mother on Mother’s Day, I made one for her too! LOL!

And here are a few old layouts of her:

Well there you have it. A tribute to the mothers in my life.  If you are reading this and you are a mother, I hope you had a Happy Mother’s Day! And if you are reading this and you are MY mother, then I hope you enjoyed the layouts

I think I am going to go and scrap some more now. I haven’t scrapped this much in one day in a LONG time! I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I should probably be designing or making long-overdue blinkies for my CT or some other more serious business-related thing but I can’t help myself. I went on a digi-supply shopping spree so I’ve got tons of new goodies and I just feel like scrapping!

Have a good week everyone!