Hearty response to hospital plea for help from crochet fans
Crafters around Westmeath are rooting out their crochet hooks in response to a plea from Mullingar hospital for help with a project aimed at providing some comfort for families suffering bereavements.
The hospital is looking to have small heart-shaped tokens crocheted from purple wool, and has provided a pattern for volunteers to follow – and the response has been overwhelming so far.
“I never knew there were so many crocheters out there – even among the staff,” Emma O’Sullivan, bereavement nurse at the hospital told the Westmeath Examiner this week.
The idea behind the hearts is that when a patient at the hospital dies, a crocheted heart will be placed in their hands, and a matching one presented to the family, to signify the ongoing connection.
The suggestion came from a colleague of Emma, Trish Gill: “Trish works in nursing admin here and she came to me before Christmas with the idea.
“Her beloved brother Paul O’Neill very sadly died in July of last year. And when they went back into his room in the [Dublin] hospital where Paul died, just to say their last goodbyes, they noticed that the staff had put a little purple crocheted heart in Paul’s hand and they gave them some hearts to take home as a comforting keepsake. And Trish was just blown away by this: she really got great comfort from it.”
Since looking in to the concept, Emma has discovered that some of those who receive such hearts after a bereavement keep them on their bedside lockers or under their pillow at night.
“Trish has hers framed in her house, and the gift really meant a lot to her,” says Emma.
On hearing of the action, Emma thought it was a lovely gesture: “So I brought the idea to our end of life care committee and it was warmly received there. Everybody thought it was a great initiative to bring in, so one of our committee members, Helen Cunningham – who is very good at crafts and knitting and crocheting – kindly sourced a pattern and adapted it and she made some beautiful sample hearts for us here.
“When we saw them, we just thought this is a lovely way to extend a small act of kindness to our bereaved families here at the hospital and to give them a little symbol of the continuing bond with their loved one after they have died. It’s our way of showing families that the cycle of care continues after somebody has died and that the care of the family is very important too and we want to try and bring as much comfort to those families as we can.”
The team quickly realised that to make the project viable, they were going to need some help, and so they went public with their plea.
“We had no idea how big it was going to go and how big the response would be,” says Emma.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the kindness of the local communities – and not even just local: we’ve had people reaching out from all over the country to help us and you know, we cannot thank people enough for getting in touch and for the lovely messages and the lovely feedback and offers of help, so we’re really hopeful that we will have plenty of these little purple crocheted hearts to distribute to our bereaved families.”
The reason the colour purple has been chosen is because it is the colour of the Regional Hospital Mullingar end-of-life symbol: “It’s the colour we associate with end of life care, and the colour purple would traditionally be associated with spirituality and it’s a noble colour. So we would use the colour purple in any of our end of life initiatives just as a way of showing respect,” Emma says.
While the pattern may be a bit challenging on first attempt, once in the swing of it, experienced crocheters say they can complete one in 15-20 minutes.
“Equally if they have a pattern themselves for small crochet hearts, we’re not going to be fussy about them being exactly a match of our pattern. The main thing is that they are kind of sturdy or robust so that families can keep them for a long time, and that they are small enough to fit into the palm of a hand – and of course purple; we want to make sure they’re purple. So they’re the three main stipulations.”
Anyone who makes the hearts is asked to drop them at the hospital reception or to send them to: Emma O’Sullivan, CNS Bereavement, Regional Hospital Mullingar, Longford Road, Mullingar.
“Also, please attach your name and contact details with your purple hearts so I will know who sent them in,” Emma says.
• The pattern can be found at this link: bit.ly/48MByte.