Forwarded message:
Subject: Kathy Sandbach’s Quilts
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:00:56 -0700
Hello ladies, this is Ken Sandbach, Kathy’s son typing. As most of you know by now my mom has been diagnosed with a nasty type of dementia, called Frontal Temporal Dementia. If you were around her the last few years at all, you may have noticed some behavior changes–slight at first, and then progressing to downright bizarre. It took the kids some time (unfortunately), but this last December we finally got the diagnosis, and began putting all the pieces together. Her symptoms these days are too numerous for this email, but if you’re curious Google Frontal Temporal Dementia or go to www.mayoclinic.com and search there.
The reason for writing this morning is to let you know after a long conversation with my sister we have decided to begin selling my mom’s quilting legacy. We are down to about 6 month’s money left for Kathy’s care, and have found that Social Security and Medicare just don’t cut it. Assisted living care is running 7k/month, not including her insurance and mortgage payments (her Oregon house in on the market, but no one is buying these days).
As a test experiment we have put 3 of her quilts on eBay to test reception. Their names and descriptions have come from her books, because we’re just not that smart! If this eBay auction proves to be worthwhile, there are another such 100 quilts that will make their way to you her fans.Â
While this is a tough time, and even tougher decision to make, neither Kristine or I have the room or energy to store these quilts in the way they deserve, so we’re hoping/praying that the people who love them most will be willing to adopt them.
Lastly, it has been at least 18 months since Kathy spent any regular time on her email, so many of these addresses are likely to be bad. Please, PLEASE forward this letter to your address books/quilt lovers, and ask they do the same. Kathy has traveled all over the United States and UK teaching, so I am hoping this letter will make its way around the entire quilting universe!
If you have any questions feel free to email me at ken.sandbach@beamglobal.com or my sister at kristine.sandbach@wachovia.com. Also there is a guestbook at mom’s old website www.machinequiltlady.com. Please go there and sign the guestbook. It would mean a lot to grasp just how many people Kathy has touched through quilting.
Thank you for letting my invade you inbox this morning!
Sincerely, Ken Sandbach
