Warm treatment
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on December 8, 2017 5:50 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/JOEY PITCHFORD
Teresa Best, right, gives a handmade quilt to Andrea Burnett, left, at the Southeastern Medical Oncology Center Wednesday. Best sewed 12 quilts for chemotherapy patients at SMOC, where her mother, Annette Thayer, is also a patient.
When Teresa Best started sewing quilts for chemotherapy patients at the Southeastern Medical Oncology Center, she did not do so for accolades.
On Wednesday, when she visited SMOC to give the quilts out, Best did not care if the patients even knew who had made the gifts.
"I don't need them to know it was me, just that somebody brought them gifts." she said. "The Lord tells us to do our giving in secret."
A retired surgical nurse who spent 27 years at Wayne Memorial Hospital, Best said she likes to spend her free time nowadays in her sewing room.
"I've always loved to sew, my relaxing time is just me in my sewing room," she said. "I've sewed anything from Barbie clothes to bridal gowns, and I've sewed things for all my kids and grandkids."
That comes out to 10 people -- two children and eight grandchildren.
Best came up with the idea to donate quilts while sewing one for her mother, Annette Thayer, who has been a patient at SMOC for 12 years.
"They get cold back there during chemo, and I started making the first one and just decided I'd see how many I could get done before I went back," Best said. "I ended up with 12 of them."
Best did not walk in to SMOC on Wednesday anticipating an interview. Thayer was the one who brought attention to what her daughter was doing, and Best was hesitant to accept praise for anything. Thayer said she had decided her daughter deserved some recognition.
"Without her, I wouldn't be able to do anything," Thayer said. "I can't hardly walk, and she spends all this time on me. She does so much for me."
Best deflected that praise toward SMOC.
"My mother has been here for years, and they have always just been so good to her," Best said. "It warms my heart to be able to give back to them, even if they don't know who did it."