It seems that some people have found the way I've approached cancer to be interesting. Channel 9 News Great Day Houston Newspapers |
Greeley Tribune, Monday, March 9, 2009 Artist fights cancer with cement At 62 years old, Kay Anderson of Greeley has two calendars for 2009: one with upcoming craft shows to display her concrete art, and the other with scheduled chemotherapy, radiation and drug treatments to battle the breast cancer she was diagnosed with last November. Her favored calendar is the one with this year’s 27 shows that she, her metal-crafting husband, Ernie, 69, and their glass- and metal-designing daughter, Tiffany Koehn, will participate in this year. The other is a different sort of timetable, displaying her three back-to-back surgeries that removed bits of the cancer, her 18 weeks of chemotherapy to come, the three weeks of radiation treatment the doctor has ordered, and finally, a year of scheduled infusions of Herceptin, a cancer-treatment therapy drug. “I have cancer, it doesn’t have me,” Anderson said. The family was at the New Home and Remodel Show to sell some of their creations Sunday at The Ranch, Interstate 25 and Crossroads Boulevard in Loveland. Anderson said she loves the idea of taking something industrial, such as cement, and making it pretty. So, when she and Ernie saw an artist’s lawn columns near their old home in Seattle, Anderson thought, “I could do that.” She is a retired tech support agent for Seattle-based Adobe Systems Inc., and the only experience she had with cement was making miniature stepping-stones with her grandchildren when they came to visit her in Seattle. But, with the help of Google and heavy experimentation, Anderson is proudly self-taught and now handcrafts giant concrete rhubarb leaves, planters, columns, fire pits and crosses for the yard. With one chemo treatment down and five to go — spread over 18 weeks — the only restriction her doctor has put on her activity is her aerobics, which he suggested be replaced with walking. Anderson hates walking, so for now, she will continue lugging and mixing the 80-pound bags of cement from Home Depot, herself. “My favorite present ever was my cement mixer for our 40th anniversary,” Anderson said. She got the gift from her husband. He got a new shovel for their 40th anniversary. “We don’t want to be couch potatoes,” he said. “Working hard keeps me out of the bars and chasing wild women,” he said, looking at his wife and laughing. Both Ernie and Kay find gratification in building something from scratch and seeing it take the form of something beautiful. Now, their front yard has more lawn ornaments than a person driving by would be able to count. The three artists work in the Anderson’s double-car garage, which is filled with cement, scrap metal, glass blowing instruments and tools. Anderson finds strength to overcome her cancer in the support she receives from her family. Last week, the Andersons hosted a head-shaving party for Kay. Twenty-five family members and neighborhood friends came together for a special meal before Kay, her husband, their son, their daughter and a craft show friend all moved to the garage to shave their heads in solidarity. “I’m so glad everyone’s laughing instead of crying,” Anderson remembered her granddaughter saying after the shaving party. Anderson’s blue eyes don’t look tired, but as her chemo treatments continue, her doctor warned she would become more and more fatigued. Working 10-hour days for three days straight to finish a column may be something that needs to be taken slow. Her husband said she’ll just do what she feels like, when she feels like it — whether it be one hour of work or 10. “Concrete is very therapeutic for me. … I’m so stubborn, I don’t like sitting down at all,” Anderson said. “I have cancer, it doesn’t have me,” she reiterated. |