Mobile memorial

[shanaqui]

I'm doing the Race for Life 5k on the 23rd and I'm currently raising money -- my team's page is here, or people in the UK can sponsor me by texting "AMNI89 £[amount]" to 70070.

But I also have a small personal project going on, which is really what I'm here for. I have a pink t-shirt which I am going to turn into a mobile memorial for people who've died of cancer: not just those I've lost, but anyone. If you comment here, or PM me, or email me at thebrightspark[at]gmail[dot]com, with however many names you like, they will be written on my t-shirt in fabric pen. However you'd like the name to feature will be what I write down -- just a first name, a pair of names kept together, a full name, a username... I can't promise anything about size/placement/colour, but I will feature every name I get, somehow.*

Examples of people on my list so far: my grandparents, my girlfriend's grandmother, a teacher of my mother's, Jack Swigert, Dashiell Hammett, a boy who lived in the same hall of residence as me at university, Kim Manners, Henrietta Lacks...

I'd love for my shirt to be so full of names you can barely see the original colour. Please share this around! On twitter, I'm using the hashtag #projecttshirt to talk about/promote it.

*If I run out of space for names on the t-shirt, I will add them to my backsign and my teammate's backsign and everywhere else I can think of.

Comments

[sid]

*hugs you* My mother's name was Phyllis. She died of ovarian cancer at age 64.

[jjhunter]

I've PMed you M's full name.

[shanaqui]

On the list. Thank you.

[shanaqui]

I don't seem to have received it -- but DW is being slow with notifications for me right now...

[jjhunter]

A new dw_news post will do that - all the comment notifications, PMs, etc. get a bit delayed while the email notifications for the post go out to pretty much the entire DW userbase.

[alexseanchai]

Ray and Doris Owens

this is incredibly sweet of you by the way, thank you

[scheherezhad]

This is such a wonderful idea. I'd be honored for you to include my grandparents, Helen and Eugene.

[clare_dragonfly]

Oh, wow, this is wonderful. Please add Gerrie, my grandmother.

[shanaqui]

Ah, yes. Received and now added to the shirt.

[shanaqui]

On the shirt. Thank you for giving me names. ♥

[shanaqui]

Thank you. They're on my shirt now.

[shanaqui]

I'm glad you like the idea. Thank you for the name -- she's been added to my shirt.

[jjhunter]

Thank you again - this means so much to me. (And you're including Henrietta Lacks too! So much yes.)

By and by, will you take pictures of the shirt when it's complete? I would love to share them with M's family.

[shanaqui]

Henrietta Lacks was the first person I thought of including when I started thinking about famous/significant people I could add!

Yes, I will. I'm not sure how legible it will all be, as it's quite hard to write on fabric, but I'll do my best to get some good shots. (And there'll be a couple of me wearing it on race day, I have no doubt.)

[jjhunter]

Awesome.

By and by, have you asked copperbadge to signal boost this on the next Radio Free Monday? I would highly recommend it.

[kshandra]

Having clicked through to your post, I wanted to be sure that you knew my icon is from the original image at http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/ and not M's personal copy. It's an AWESOME sampler, and I wish I was good enough at counted cross stitch to make my own (my husband's a survivor).

[kshandra]

Since his passing was just this past weekend, I suspect Iain Banks's name is already on your shirt, but I wanted to make sure.

On a more personal note, I'd appreciate it if you'd add Alex (dancingshaman) Baker, Laura (smileystickman) Laser, Anna (peaberry) Pope, and Gale Salwocki. (You don't need to include the journal names, but I thought you might want to read their stories.)

And thank you.

[jjhunter]

Thanks for the clarification - I didn't realize M's friend had stitched from a publicly available pattern.

Re: acquiring or making one yourself, I bet the lovely folks over at cross_stitch could provide resources / support if you ever decide to go for it...

[shanaqui]

I haven't asked! I shall drop a comment about that, I think.

[shanaqui]

Yep, it was the first name added after family members.

I've written them on the shirt now. Thank you.

[susanreads]

This is an intriguing idea for a memorial.

You could add my mother, Hilda, who was about the same age I am now.

[shanaqui]

I got the idea because a lot of people doing the Race for Life write the names of their lost loved ones on their backsign, where you're supposed to explain what/who you're racing for. Mine last year simply said "everyone". This year, though, I can't stop thinking of my grandfather (who I lost in the last year), but I want to be reminded of how many people have lost, that it isn't just a personal fight but one for everyone.

I've added your mother's name to my t-shirt. Thank you.

[elrhiarhodan]

Here via Copperbadge's Radio Free Monday.

My grandmother's name was Jeanne (1995)
My mother's name was Isobel (2002)
My father's name was Seymour (2010)

Thank you for this

[sailorsol]

Here via Copperbadge, and I think this is a fantastic idea.

Please add Carol E. Stephens, one of my college professors and mentors; and Barbara C., my grandmother.

<3

[clachnaben]

My uncle's name was Ian, he died last year of lung cancer leaving a wife and five kids.

This is an amazing thing you're doing!