(Submitted photo/Sylvia Stelmaschuk)

By Derek Craddock

FROM GRIEF TO HOPE

Grandmother channels grief into love with afghans for hospital

Dec 14, 2022 | 8:39 AM

What has helped a local woman deal with the pain of loss is bringing smiles to hundreds at the Victoria Hospital.

For the past five years, Cilvia Stelmaschuk has been crocheting afghans and hats that are then donated to children at the hospital.

Speaking to paNOW, Stelmaschuk said the reason she started the hobby was to help her cope with the loss of a grandchild.

“I had to do something to get over the grief and that’s what worked for me,” she said. “I‘ll make afghans for children in the hospital that have the (mis) fortune of ending up there at Christmas or whenever and that way it can make somebody happy.”

The first year she made the afghans, she donated 62 and every year after that she has set a goal of giving 100. Half of those go to the children’s ward while the other 50 go to the maternity ward.

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She said the nurses at the hospital are happy every year they receive them, and they always bring smiles to the faces of the kids who get them

At the end of it all, she said she never asks for recognition or money, she just knows it helps her to move forward.

“I don’t do this for the recognition, I just do it because it’s my way of processing through my grief which has helped me a lot even though I still get choked up about it.”

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock