Without adequate supplies, or any access to them, I resorted to using the brightly colored plastic covered phone wires that my brothers had left behind when I moved into the upstairs bedroom. I did a lot of wirewrapping, even though I had no idea of what it was. I made many multi-colored rings, some bracelets and necklaces.
Fast forward lots of years. I got married (and divorced and remarried) quite young. I am lucky enough to be married to a man who comes from a long line of devoted husbands. They are so known for this that when my grandma heard we were engaged, she said, "Oh good! Those Spendlove men take good care of their women!" I am the mother of 6 children and 11 grandchildren. I spent 31 years raising children, and soon learned I had no time for hobbies. My youngest child, Benjamin, was born with Cystic Fibrosis, and for the nearly 20 years he was on this earth, my whole world revolved around his care.
For the last year and a half of his life Benjamin's medical team was an 8 hour drive away from home. When he was hospitalized for 5 weeks at a time, I would move into the hospital with him. It was a time of hard work for him, and a bit of a vacation for me, because others were responsible for his care. One time when we were there, Benjamin had stumbled upon a bushel box filled with beading supplies. He told the occupational therapist that he thought his mom would like to see this box and maybe make something (even when he was sick, he followed the Spendlove tradition, and he was taking care of his mom). That week, my spark for creating jewelry was reignited! I still had no time, but I took a set of jewelry with a bracelet, earrings , and a necklace that I had made, home from that hospitalization.
During this same time, we would stay at my sister Amy's house the day before hospitalization, and the day of release, before heading home. Amy's oldest three children are girls, and they were small at this time. One of them commented that it was pretty neat that my name was Jewelry and I wear jewelry. That's when I learned that they thought my name was actually Jewelry instead of Julie, so I was Aunt Jewelry!
A few years later, I thought I had experienced all the grief I could possibly handle. I had lost my son in 2009, just before he turned 20. Twenty days later, I lost my Daddy, fifteen months later I lost my Mom. I survived the grief, but it was more than my baby sister could take, and she suddenly died of stage four lung cancer last year.
When Amy died, our older sister and I had been waiting for Amy to wean her youngest child, so the three of us could take a trip to Hawaii together. Linda, my older sister, commented that Amy never seemed excited to go, but I believe that somewhere deep inside, Amy knew she would not live long enough to take this trip. Linda and I took the trip in October to honor our baby sister, and while we were there we learned that all adult women are referred to as Auntie, because everyone is family. At this time in order to honor family, or as they say in Hawaii, Ohana , I became Auntie Jewelry. Go to my fledgling Etsy store
