Granny's Girl Spreads Good Works Beyond Her Own Illness

Staff photo Annette Beard Lindsey Crowder pauses with her mother, Lisa Crowder, and maternal grandmother, Mary Margeret Webb. Lindsey’s illness and time spent at Arkansas Children’s Hospital gave rise to a quilt project called Granny’s Quilts of Love.
Staff photo Annette Beard Lindsey Crowder pauses with her mother, Lisa Crowder, and maternal grandmother, Mary Margeret Webb. Lindsey’s illness and time spent at Arkansas Children’s Hospital gave rise to a quilt project called Granny’s Quilts of Love.

Lindsey Crowder is a sophomore at Lifeway Christian School, where she pitches for the softball team and enjoys the normal activities that most teenage girls do. She spends time with her two younger brothers, Reece and Dawson, and enjoys playing with Lily, her yellow Labrador retriever. She likes drawing, riding bikes, swimming and spending time at her grandparents' farm north of Pea Ridge, where she kayaks and fishes on the creek.

But 13 years ago, her family could not envision her as a healthy, ordinary teenager.

Fast Facts

Granny’s Quilts

Granny’s Quilts of Love will meet at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 21 at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, 1300 N. Davis St. in Pea Ridge. They will cut quilt kits.

Information: (479) 451-8640.

When she was 2 years old, Lindsey was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and began an intensive series of treatments at Arkansas Children's Hospital. And, when she was 6, she relapsed. She's been in remission for seven years now, but she still has to visit ACH annually.

"I really don't remember a lot about it," Lindsey said recently, recalling mainly the playroom at the Little Rock hospital. "I remember some nurses."

"I praise God she can do that after four and a half years of chemotherapy," Lisa Crowder, Lindsey's mother, said. "She was a good patient. She was an obedient, sweet little girl."

"She went through two years of intensive chemotherapy," Crowder recalled.

Lindsey's parents, Todd and Lisa Crowder, and grandparents Dean and Marjorie Crowder and Kent and Mary Margaret Webb worked hard to help keep her mind off the treatments and any unpleasantness associated with them.

"She was pretty distracted," Lisa said, adding that family members read to her and spent time playing with her.

Through that experience, both grandmothers joined forces to form Granny's Quilts of Love in Pea Ridge, making quilts for children at Arkansas Children's Hospital. That club has grown and as of this date, has made 18,000 quilts for sick children. The club has an annual dinner and auction to raise money for materials, and volunteers make the quilts.

Marjorie Crowder died in June. Mary Margaret Webb, Lindsey's maternal grandmother, said she is very grateful for Lindsey's health.

"We never imagined she would be able to play ball, go to school, do all the normal things kids do," Webb said.

Webb said that when she was at the children's hospital, she kept trying to think of a way to help the children there. That's when she came up with the quilt idea.

"We just wanted to help," she said, adding that a nurse at ACH told her that she often carries a quilt when assisting a doctor telling parents news of their child's illness because a quilt is comforting.

Kim Dutton, senior development officer for Arkansas Children's Hospital Foundation, said Lindsey and her mother have been wonderful advocates for ACH.

"She is one of the most passionate supporters," Dutton said of Lisa Crowder. "She has such a wonderful story with Lindsey. What a great success story she has!"

Attending the Granny's Quilts of Love dinner and auction for the first time in August, Dutton said: "This is such a great community. I had heard about it but didn't realize until I pulled into the parking lot (of the high school) and saw it full."

"They (Granny's) keep us so well supplied, and they do special quilts when asked," Dutton said.

"I've attended a Granny's meeting/work day. It's like a well-oiled machine. It is truly amazing to watch the volume of work they create. It's amazing that they do what they do," she said.

"We began on a shoestring," Webb said of Granny's Quilts of Love. "This has to be of God."

From the beginning until now, the group has made and delivered 18,500 quilts to the hospital.

"The auction, the dinner, the community -- that's how we raise money for it," Webb said of Granny's Quilts of Love.

When Lindsey was 6, she relapsed and the family had to spend more than two years at ACH.

"We pretty much moved to Little Rock," Lisa Crowder said. "All three of my kids learned so many hard things. They are compassionate and see things differently because of this experience."

Lindsey was first diagnosed thanks to her maternal grandmother, Mary Margaret Webb, who was working in the lab at a local doctor's office.

"She had bruising behind her knee," Lisa Crowder recalled, and her mother told her to take her to the doctor. Webb was the one who read the results.

"I knew something was wrong," Webb said, adding that she noticed Lindsey was pale just before her relapse was diagnosed.

"She was amazingly calm," Lisa Crowder said of her mother. "We've had such an amazing support system of family, church, community."

Lindsey didn't show any signs of illness the first time or when she relapsed, her mother said. "We were going along thinking she's healed when out of the blue, the test results came back and her blood work had bottomed out."

Through it all, Crowder said her faith was strengthened and she's learned to prioritize.

"Find your faith in God," Crowder recommends to parents, "build that relationship and put life in perspective. Put God first, then family, then friends."

"When that happened, you don't care what kind of house you live in, what kind of car you drive. When your child is sick, all you care about is them getting well."

NAN Life on 09/17/2014

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