Braintree's 'Pillow Lady' Helps Patients Treated for Cancer

Jackie Edmunds of Braintree calls hers a "non-profit operation."

Jackie, 74, does clothing alterations part time at home. The money she makes from shortening pant legs and letting out skirts she invests back into her former employer- Gifford Medical Center.

Jackie makes "comfort pillows" for Gifford's breast cancer patients. An article in "Country" magazine, about a similar project in the western U.S., prompted the charitable enterprise.

A member of the Middle Branch Grange in East Bethel, Jackie was looking for a community service project.

"In Grange we do what's called community service. I saw this ad in the magazine and I said, 'Yes, that's something I can do.'"

In Jo-Ann Fabrics, Jackie found just the right size pillow form and in the more than two years since has made more than 75 soft, flannel-covered pillows, each with a pink ribbon on the front, each at her own expense. Each carries the Grange's name on an interior tag, not her own.

"It's just something I like to do, and it's something they really do need," says Jackie of why she spends her time and money to help patients she never meets.

At Gifford, the pillows go to patients recovering from surgery in Howell Pavilion or receiving outpatient oncology treatments. The pillows are placed between a breast cancer patient's body and arm following a mastectomy to help alleviate pain.

Gifford oncology patients also use them under their heads while undergoing treatments, oncology nurse Ellen Parker says.

And patients recovering from abdominal surgery place the pillows on their stomachs when getting up to support their incisions, explains Howell Pavilion unit coordinator and LNA Shannon Ballou. The pillows are also used to provide comfort to end-of-life patients.

"They work really well because they're the perfect size," Shannon says. "Everybody says they're beautiful and soft," notes Ellen.

Jackie spent 13 years at Gifford, working in Environmental Services before retiring in 1999.

Besides sewing, this mother of eight enjoys fixing up her home with husband Arden.

"It's a nice old house," Jackie notes, "and everything in it is old, including us."