Essay: Needlework with Nana

My nana, Ann Haber, has always been her own woman. At age 83, she lives in an isolated Northern Ontario community. Twenty-five years ago she and my papa -- her husband -- retired there, to a house that has always been our family's cottage. Papa passed away, but Nana still lives there, feeding the wild animals and stoking the wood stove in the winter.

Idolizing Nana
When I was growing up, our family spent many vacations at the cottage, and Nana was always the life of the party. She was always the first person to jump into the river when it still had ice on it. She'd hop on a snowmobile and go on treks in the bush. Her granddaughters -- myself included -- hold her up on a pedestal.So when she decided that the adult women in my family (my sister Stephanie and I, my cousins Lisa and Samantha, and my aunt Janice) should all get tattoos, we were only partly surprised. It was July 2008 and we were at our annual family barbecue. Months earlier, Nana had been diagnosed with breast cancer and, thankfully, treated successfully. The women in our family told Nana we wanted to do something to pay tribute to her. That's when she came up with the tattoo idea.

The perfect symbol
In our cottage there's a big oak hutch behind the kitchen table. It holds a tea set with a pretty floral pattern that has been in our family since 1936. One day, a few months after our barbecue, it hit us. We would use the pattern on the china as our tattoo design -- a perfect image to represent Nana's life and our cottage.

Time passed and I forgot about the plan for a while. One day Nana called me up and announced, "I want to get on with this tattoo business." She had decided we would get them for Mother's Day during a girls' weekend at the cottage. Suddenly, I began to panic, thinking of needles, sterilization and pain. What seemed like such a far-off plan was becoming reality.

Click to continue to find out what happened when the big day rolled around...

Page 1 of 2

Taking the plunge
Tattoo weekend came and we set out on the long drive north from Brantford, Ont., to Nana's. On the Saturday morning, the six of us showed up at Ink Fix Tattoo in Sudbury for our appointment. Our tattoo artist, Danielle, was so friendly she immediately put me at ease. By the end of the day she was part of the family.

Nana went first. Danielle applied a temporary mock-up of the design on Nana's shoulder and sanitized the area. She brought down her pen and began drawing, very slowly, the needles going in and out and the machine making a buzzing noise. She traced the outline of the design and added colour later, dipping her pen into little cups of ink. The whole time, Nana didn't flinch. When it was over she looked in the mirror and beamed.My turn!
I went next, heart pounding. As Danielle worked on my lower back, it felt like a constant bee sting, but the pain was bearable. Samantha put a magazine on the chair in front of me to distract me, and flipped the pages whenever I called out "Next!"

We had the time of our lives, laughing and telling stories. Remember when we learned to water ski? Remember when Nana fell off the snowmobile? We joked with one another and Nana watched with pride, a big grin on her face as each of us stepped up to take our turn.

Danielle said Nana was the oldest customer she had ever worked with and that we were the biggest group she had ever had. There were a lot of firsts that day.

And now we wear a living tribute to Nana, and to the inspiration she provides.

What have you done to show your support, love and solidarity for a loved one with cancer? Click the microphone icon above to share your story.

Find more fantastic stories about real lives in our Life & Times section.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
-How to help a friend who has cancer
-Run, rest and read for breast cancer survivors
-Dragon ladies: conquering cancer as a team

Page 2 of 2