I Make Breast Cancer Bracelets In Honor Of My Great Grandma Jo Who Lost Her Life To The Disease

By Emily Foster
My Great Grandma Jo was a truly original person who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2000. She struggled with the disease for more than 10 years and was a tough p3rson who refused to die. During her life, she was a wedding dress seamstress, a gardener, a jewelry designer, a collector of Native American arrowheads, and a real go getter of a person. She was well versed in many crafts-crocheting, knitting, quilting, and making beaded jewelry. She passed on her love of beaded jewelry to me, her great-granddaughter and namesake, and I make jewelry for sale in honor of her.
Emily Josephine Leisure was a native Kansas who was raised through the depression years by her mother, Winnifred Leisure. She married my great grandfather who was part Delaware Indian in secret and worked in a salt mine in Hutchinson, Kansas. My great-grandfather was Dale Stout and he was a professional house painter. They lived in the same house in Hutchinson for 40 years. They had 3 sons, Jack, Steve, and John Stout. My great-uncle Jack was a professional artist (painter). A different type of painter than his father. According to my family, Grandpa Dale used to let his son Jack paint the walls of his room in murals for practice, then he would just paint over it and start over! Emily Josephine (or Grandma Jo as we all called her) and Grandpa Dale also had a daughter, Sharon. She is my grandmother and also sews, makes jewelry, and has had breast cancer. Sharon had 3 daughters- Vickie, Nicholi and Penni. My Aunt Nickie passed away from breast cancer as well. I guess you could say it runs in the family.
When I was a little girl, all my Cabbage Patch Kid clothes and Barbie clothes were made by the women in my family...especially Grandma Jo. When I would go over to her house, she would show my brother and sister and I her arrowhead collection, rocks that she found in Arizona, some that she tumbled herself, fossils and all the jewelry she had made. She had a lot of African Trade beads and things made out of gemstone. She would let us touch everything and tell us what all the stones were. She had a good story to go with each item, something about where she got it from or whom it belonged to, that made it very special.
Everything was exciting with Grandma Jo. As she became elderly, she lost her eyesight. She would still string beads by feel with a needle and stringing thread for Bingo prizes for the "old people" in the nursing home. Grandma Jo would always let us choose something for ourselves to take home. I have kept everything she ever gave me and even though most of the necklaces don't fit me anymore or are outdated, I will always treasure them.
Grandma Jo was very tough. She had a double masectomy, and chemotherapy. She lost all her hair. During her on and off struggle in and out of remission with breast cancer, she lost her husband. Great Grandpa Dale had a failing heart and had to go to a nursing home. He passed away within the same year. Grandma Jo was told many times that she would also die. She was sent home to die many times and kept on living and doing what she loved. Eventually the cancer got into her bones. Her back broke-literally-and she was told she would not walk ever again. She did walk again. It was only when the cancer spread to her brain that she did eventually lose her life after a more than 10 year battle with the disease. We all loved her dearly and still miss her. I wish she could have met my sons, but I tell them about her. She was an amazing person and I am proud to be from a lineage of tough women who are strong-willed, creative, and determined.
I have a lot of qualities in common with my Great Grandmother. I am named Emily after her. The name itself means ingenious, creative. I also crochet, scrapbook, play the flute (oh, did I mention Grandma Jo once won an award for writing the winning school fight song?), and I design and make jewelry from gemstones, shell, crystal, glass and wood. I have started my first website after selling through art and craft fairs for a couple years. My web address is www.feminineflairjewelry.com. The name of my business is Feminine Flair Jewelry. I have a handmade breast cancer bracelet available on my website.
I know that Grandma Jo is proud of me. I can tell my children what all the gemstones are, and the meanings of them. I am also a story-teller and have a series of stories I made up for my sons about a fictional police character. I wish that she could be here to see my work now that I am a 30-year-old adult and give me feedback on my art and jewelry designs, but my mom says I am a lot like her. I hope if I ever have breast cancer that I can be as tough as my Great Grandma Jo and my Grandma Sharon have been.