Phoebe

oh where to begin...there is a place I love to go for lunch down the road called Pane Rustica. It used to be a hole in the wall before I moved to Louisiana. Now they have a big, beautiful space and the food is still just as yummy. When I first moved back, I would take a book and order lunch and sit by myself for an hour or two...There always was a familiar smiling face when I went in. A woman worked at Pane that I recognized from the past. I couldn't remember if she worked at the original location or if I knew her from another local restaurant. She was always laughing--she would often wear her red hair in pigtails and never lost her cool when the restaurant was overflowing with customers. She would wear funky jewelry that would be a common topic of discussion. One day I complimented her necklace. She told me the pendant part was an old earring that had broken. She inspired me to dig through my jewelry box to see what I could make out of odds and ends.

I went by Pane a couple of months ago and I ordered my food. As I waited, my eyes drifted to a picture over a collection box with a small note. I recognized the face on the picture. I read that she has an advanced type of cancer. The restaurant was taking donations. It was the lovely lady with the pigtails. Her name is Phoebe. After all these years I never knew her name.

I choked back tears as the woman behind the counter told me about Phoebe's illness. She has colon cancer. Stage IV. I left the restaurant and I couldn't get her out of my mind. I called my friends that also frequented Pane. None of us could believe it.

A few days later I got a friend request from a woman on Facebook. I didn't recognize the name, so I looked at the person's pictures. I noticed her profile picture was of her and a guy that works at Pane. I scrolled through her other pictures and found one of Phoebe. I wrote to the friend requester and told her that I didn't know her, but I recognized some people in her photos. Amy Jean replied that she was a jewelry designer and she had seen me on the local bookstore page (Inkwood Books-yay Independent Booksellers!) http://www.inkwoodbooks.com/
She said she friends people to get the word out on her designs. We started to chat and I found that she is very good friends with Phoebe. How crazy is it that I was thinking about Phoebe and Amy Jean comes into my life via the Internet? I love her quote from her page-

To take over planet Earth one bead at a time. To start by making people smile when looking into a mirror at their shiny new piece of jewelry.

 She is working on getting a webpage set up. For now, here is her fb page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amy-Jean-Designs/176008099495?v=info#!/pages/Amy-Jean-Designs/176008099495?v=wall

Sulie and I went to see Amy Jean at the restaurant (she works there too) a few weeks ago. It was so weird. I felt like I was on a blind date. We had corresponded so much, but had not met each other. We had never met because Amy Jean works nights and I  always go in during the day. She is as beautiful outside as she is inside. She updated us on Phoebe with tears in her eyes. Phoebe gets a PET scan this week. She had been denied coverage for chemo to shrink the tumor before surgery by Blue Cross saying she had a "pre-existing condition." Luckily there is a program at St. Joe's that helps with the chemo. As you can imagine, money is an issue. 

If you are local, please go by Pane and drop something in the box for Phoebe. If not, you can contact me or Amy Jean through her fb page. Prayers and Good Thoughts for Phoebe...