Children's Room at the Ansonia Library offers friendship bracelet-making fun

 The Library is at 53 S. Cliff St., Ansonia.

This is shared from the Library's newsletter.

'Circle of Friends' at Griffin Hospital in Derby enjoys photo shoot

This is a few of our 'Circle of Friends' breast cancer support group members as we posed Thursday at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital. 
The photo was taken to thank a wonderful organization, After the Storm, Inc., based in Rockfall, Ct. for its continued support. 


Stay tuned for more information in an upcoming issue of The Valley Voice newsletter. 

Recuperation journey: Circle of Friends

What a crafty group of ladies we are! 

I belong to 'Circle of Friends,' a wonderful support group for breast cancer survivors at Griffin Hospital in Derby. 
We meet once a month and tonight we decorated and wrote cards to cheer and encourage other women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer. 
We've participated in this project several times before, and it's always a fun-filled meeting. 
We use markers, stickers, and feathers, and basically tap into our creativity.
The hand-written cards filled with heartfelt messages will be sent to a nonprofit organization, Girls Love Mail, for distribution to breast cancer patients.

A special delivery arrived today

An artistic and extremely thoughtful friend absconded with my faded, aging garden gnomes when I was in the hospital for my surgery. 
Today he returned them, freshly painted and refurbished. He even created new limbs for two who sadly lost their limbs to the snow blower a few years ago.

This is Fred. He has a pet frog.

  The turtle is looking a bit faded and worn now. He might  need some work.

  I may have to separate these two. 

          This is my greeter. I'll name him Greg.

This guy is my oldest gnome. He was a gift many years ago from my late mother - and the only ceramic one I have.


This was a special delivery I'll never forget!

First field trip to grocery store was a success

Well that was fun.
I took my first foray out into the real world since my surgery (not counting medical appointments) this afternoon. 

It was good to get out, but I quickly got tired going around the grocery store. 

On a happy note I bumped into a sweet friend who has been showering me with moral support thanks to the wonders of Facebook. It was good to see her and her hubby!

And I remembered to pick up a bar of dark chocolate "for the family," so all is well.

Sharing lovely surprise from a friend today

I'm really getting spoiled during my recuperation. 

Santa, elf visit open house at Seymour Pink gift shop

These friendly guys welcomed shoppers Sunday to the second annual Holiday Open House at Seymour Pink gift shop. Scrappy the Elf was Santa's helper for the event.

If you have never visited the shop at 3 Franklin St., Seymour you can see that it's filled with all things pink. 

T-shirts, sweatshirts, scarves, gloves, jewelry, mugs, and more are for sale with proceeds benefiting Seymour Pink, a community's fight against breast cancer. 

Seymour Pink volunteers wait on a customer.

My daughter, Allegra, and I posed for a photo with Scrappy and Santa.

Seymour Pink volunteers beautifully decorated an evergreen tree in front of the nearby Seymour Police Department headquarters,11 Franklin St.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Dear readers,

I want to thank every one of you who visits me here.

The number of readers each day has been about the same for quite a while, which indicates to me the same folks are stopping by, and for that I'm grateful.

I hope your Thanksgiving Day is filled with making memories with family and friends.

Gobble, gobble.

The Bernadettes bring music, love to downtown Ansonia

ANSONIA - The Bernadettes gave a fabulous performance Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Park as part of the city's summer concert series. 
Here Bryan Kearney sings 'Happy Birthday' to Ansonia native Elise Zarrilli, sister of Ansonia resident Judy Nicolari.
Zarrilli, who lives in Massachusetts, was celebrating her 85th birthday Wednesday, and Kearney led the audience in song.

I'd say Elise enjoyed her special day! 

Group at Griffin Hospital in Derby makes cards to offer friendship, hope

'Girls Love Mail' initiative

DERBY - I'm a member of the Circle of Friends breast cancer support group at Griffin Hospital and at last week's meeting we got crafty. 
We took part in a nationwide initiative called "Girls Love Mail," and had fun creating cards to be sent to those who also have heard the diagnosis of breast cancer. 

Stay strong, smile, live life to the fullest, dream big. Those were some of the messages of hope we shared.

According to one of our support group's facilitators, Donna Hayes, oncology social worker at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital, Girls Love Mail collects handwritten letters and gives them to women newly diagnosed with breast cancer via cancer centers around the country.

Girls Love Mail was founded by Gina Mulligan after her own breast cancer journey. Mulligan received more than 200 letters, mostly from people she didn’t know, and realized that letters from caring people have the power to heal.