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Dedicated to Patricia Rickley This
quilt block is dedicated to Patricia Rickley. Pat died of metastatic bone cancer
on March 10, 1998 at the age of 50 after a two year battle with cancer that included
two hip replacements, back surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Pat
became a single mother of five after her divorce in 1979. In 1981, she started
nursing school and went to school full time while raising her school age children
and the youngest who was two. After completing nursing school, she moved to Clay
Center, Ks and began her career as a RN at Clay County Hospital. She worked full
time and continued to raise her children alone. Pat remarried in 1989 and her
children except for the youngest, left the nest and started their own lives but
she continued to support and nurture them. Pat
experienced pain in her hip for 6 months and continued to work as a staff nurse
before being diagnosed with cancer. After she recovered from hip surgery and while
she was taking chemo and radiation, she returned to work until the cancer continued
to spread and she was no longer able to endure the physical demands of her job.
Pat spent the
last eight months of her life as a patient in the hospice room Clay County Medical
Center being cared for by her former co-workers and friends. She was totally incapacitated
and had pain because the cancer was now in her cervical spine. Pat had a strong
faith in God and daily relied on Him for her strength and hope. She had a written
quote in her view that seemed to characterize her attitude toward her illness:
"Hopeless End or Endless Hope, the choice is yours". In some of her most difficult
moments, Pat seemed to exemplify the biblical verse, "God's strength is made perfect
in our weakness". She often encouraged her family and friends with words of hope
and comfort in the midst of her own pain and disability. After
her death, Pat's nursing colleagues placed a memorial picture in the Hospice room
that depicted Jesus in heaven embracing someone and the inscription on the picture
said, "Welcome home, good and faithful servant". Dedicated
by Clyde & Rita Wollenberg, Clay Center, Ks
Stitching by Jeanne Harbison,
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