When one door closes another one opens. Instead of looking at the closed door with regrets too long, look to the other door that is open.
I almost feel guilty about expressing my deep sadness over what Covid-19 has done to my photography non profit because I know there are so many people whose lives have been turned upside down and see no clear path for better days.
It took me many years to uncover my love and passion for photography and several more before I knew exactly what I needed to do with that passion. Nana Sue Photography~Healing Images was entering into its second year with a calendar full of amazing workshops and opportunities for children to connect with their community. On March 16th that calendar was wiped clean. I sat looking at my studio and all my Nikon cameras and I said “now what”? Two months later I still don’t know what is next for NSPHI but I do know that as that door was temporarily closing, another was opening.
My first hobby for as long as I can remember was sewing. I remember in middle school Home Economics making a warm up suit when all the other kids were making tote bags. In 1990 after the birth of my 3rd. daughter I decided to use those skills to start a commercial sewing business. I enjoyed that business for over 13 years. Giving up that business was one of the hardest decisions I had to make but it was the best for my family at the time. I lost my love of sewing and my machine just sat collecting dust in my basement; only getting used for the rare hem or alteration. That all changed after receiving a text message.
I was sitting in my family room on Saturday March 21st AKA day one of Covid-19 quarantine. I was sitting there wondering what I was going to do for the next several months. I thought about catching up on reading, maybe learning to finally make sushi, or dare I say learn a foreign language. As I sat there contemplating my options, I received a text from a friend who was sharing with me all of her amazing projects that she was going to work on during the quarantine. I said how lucky she was that she had that hobby to keep her busy. She then shared a link to Joanne Fabric’s asking for sewers to sew face masks for the front line health care workers. I briefly looked at it and thought wow how cool that would be if I had the materials to do it.
Fast forward to May 29th, I have made over 1,600 face masks, and over 50 scrub caps.
I didn’t accomplish this on my own. Through generous donations of elastic, fabrics, cutting assistance and financial donations I was able to donate to several local hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care centers, doctors offices, family and friends.
As I began to find my love of sewing again I decided to expand my non profit to include Stitches of Kindness. My mission is to donate handmade items to those in need. I have partnered with other non profits to provide such things as face masks, scrub caps, mastectomy pillows, seat belt covers, felt wraps and chemo caps.
I still don’t know what the future holds for Healing Images but I do know that whatever I am called to do, I will listen and gladly open as many doors as I can to continue to use my talents to serve others.
