CURWENSVILLE – Curwensville Area High School art teacher Sue Lemmo lost her great uncle to Alzheimer’s, a fatal brain disease affecting more than 5 million Americans. She fought back in a most unconventional way.
She picked up a needle and thread.
Lemmo was familiar with the work of Michigan quilter Ami Simms. Simms began the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) in 2006 to raise awareness and fund research to find a cure for the slow and relentless disease that eventually took the life of her mother. When the call for quilts went out, Lemmo entered a quilt called “Mimi Has Squirrels in Her Attic.” It was accepted into the 52-quilt traveling exhibit about Alzheimer’s called “Alzheimer’s: Forgetting Piece by Piece.”
“I made it funny. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. I made it so I wouldn’t cry,” Lemmo explained.
The quilt is vibrantly colored and whimsical. A woman’s head and neck are disjointed. The woman has a bouffant hairdo with squirrels and flowers in her hair. Her mouth has a flower in it that signifies communication is lost. The border has some of its square patches missing, like parts of one’s brain that go missing as the disease progresses.
“I use art as an emotional outlet, a coping strategy to get through though times,” said Lemmo.
“Making a quilt for the exhibit gave me a chance to take something awful and make something positive. You feel helpless when someone you love is going through Alzheimer’s disease. You can’t do much for them. The exhibit provided a way for me to not feel so helpless.”
“Alzheimer’s: Forgetting Piece by Piece” will be in Lewisburg, October 2-4, at the Riverwoods Nursing Facility, 1 River Road, Lewisburg. Exhibit hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.
The exhibit, viewed by more than 200,000 people in the last three years, offers poignant interpretations of the Alzheimer’s experience in fiber. Themes include imaginings of an existence stripped of memory and learning; gritty illustrations of the anger, frustration, and stress of care-giving; beautiful tributes to loved ones taken by Alzheimer’s; and the anticipation of a future cure. They are quilts of heartbreak and hope. Each artist statement is paired with a fact about Alzheimer’s.
The exhibit is hosted by the Susquehanna Valley Chorale in celebration of the newly-commissioned choral/orchestral composition, “Alzheimer’s Stories,” which will be premiered in Bucknell University’s Weis Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. on Oct. 9. Real stories written by the families and caregivers of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease are the basis of the work by composer Robert S. Cohen and librettist Herschel Garfein.
Quilters and non-quilters who wish to learn more about the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative should visit the nonprofit’s Web site or email Ami Simms at Ami@AlzQuilts.org.