Terminally Ill Children Receive Hope From Inmates
The women of the Tapestry Therapeutic Community, located in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, donned their distinctive teal t-shirts with a decal of a pink butterfly in flight, held colorful hand-made paper crafts and waited anxiously in front of a blank television screen.
Tapestry and ORW staff, along with volunteers from the Harmony Project in Columbus, Ohio, waited just as anxiously alongside them, hoping that all of the modern-day technology would work just right so an amazing event could take place…and it did.
By way of a Skype phone call, the women in the program sang children’s songs, waved their hand-made butterflies, and used playful puppets to interact with the children a half a world away. The children, whom are all ill and depend on the Sunflower House and their amazing staff for their care, smile, clap and giggle in delight until it is their turn to sing to the Tapestry family.
These two families, separated by prison fences, geographic boundaries, and circumstances beyond their control, gather to communicate with each other in the universal language of music. The women proudly and animatedly sing “This Little Light of Mine” and “You Are My Sunshine,” many with tears in their eyes, all with smiles on their faces. The compassion, love, laughter, and joy exchanged between the Tapestry Sisters and the Sunflower Children are both therapeutic and priceless.
Who could have imagined that such a beautiful sight would be found in the most unlikely of places; places that are so notoriously characterized by negativity and despair.
Through Skype, smiles and song, incarcerated women and chronically or terminally ill children are giving each other the greatest gift of all: Hope.
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