September 17, 2014 at 4:04 p.m.
Despite constant pain, Rhinelander woman enjoys life, art
Despite constant pain, Rhinelander woman enjoys life, art
By Kayla Thomason-
Hunter suffers from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative disc disease, and Barrett's esophagus. Both of her shoulders have been operated on, one knee has been placed and the other is filled with bone spurs, both feet have arthritis and one hand was broken a few years ago and didn't heal properly (causing one bone to grow longer than the other and push on other bones). She is also in heart failure.
"There's nothing left, there's no other hunks left that (don't) hurt but other than that I enjoy my crafts. You know, it takes me a long time but I wouldn't do it any other way," Hunter said. "Everybody has ups and downs, if you didn't have the downs you couldn't enjoy the ups."
About a year ago Hunter said she decided she would not let pain control her life and interfere with her passion. She decided to go back into her workshop and rejoice in her woodworking.
People who know her are amazed by her positivity and strength.
"I've got a few of my friends that say 'Pat, how do you keep doing it?' But what else is my choice?" she said. "I can get up in the morning, I can sit in my chair and vegetate and get worse and worse and worse or I can get up and say 'thank you God for another day.'"
Nearly every morning, instead of giving in to her body, she walks to her tidy little craft shop, pulls out her carving paper and traces a design onto the wood.
Then she takes a seat at her little ban saw to cuts the pieces. After that she sands them, which is the hardest part of her craft.
Hours of woodworking every day keep her mind off the pain until things start to swell.
Her once-broken arm starts to swell and she has to stop to put ice packs on it. She also uses a heating pad for her back and Bengay for everything else that hurts.
"What are you going to do?" she said. "You do what you have to do in this world."
It takes about a week to work on each piece, to cut it, sand it and apply three coats of acrylic paint and two coats of varnish.
"Once I get them sanded (I) bring them in and just to paint is a pleasure," Hunter said. "It keeps me going and a person needs an incentive. That's what makes me happy."
She creates refrigerator magnets that including Thunderbirds, a volleyball and soccer ball for her grandchildren who are in the sports, and characters from movies such as various princesses and Batman.
"I started doing the Badgers and I had sent one to the university and would you believe they loved it so much they licensed them," Hunter said.
She has also created some signs for Joe's Pasty Shop and Hodags for the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce.
She originally started doing Hodags about 10 to 15 years ago when she approached the chamber and asked if she could make them a shelf.
Hunter showed them the final product and they loved it. She made a limited amount - 100 - and gave the chamber the original.
After taking a hiatus she started creating smaller Hodags and her daughter-in-law posted photos of the them on Facebook. They can be purchased at the chamber.
The Hodag hanger is about $25 and she thinks that is her most expensive piece.
The small Hodags include the Rhinelander High School "R," a full-bodied Hodag coat/key rack, a Christmas ornament and a paw. Proceeds from those go to the Hodag Schools Foundation.
"The Hodags just don't ever seem to go out of style, everybody wants a Hodag and that's when I think I decided I'm going to concentrate on the Hodags," Hunter said.
About a year ago she packaged some of her crafts made for children, such as Strawberry Shortcake, Hello Kitty etc., in three big boxes and sent them to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Hunter told them to give one to the children when they came in. Staff told her that the children had such big smiles on their faces after receiving the gifts.
Despite all the pain Hunter says she is blessed.
"As bad sometimes as I feel I think 'oh my God there are so many people (that have it) worse,'" Hunter said. "I love what I do. I love my life, everything is good."
Hunter has started participating in craft fairs and thinks she may attend the Show and Tell Craft Show at James Williams Middle School on Nov. 22.
"I couldn't do these craft fairs without my daughter-in-law," she said. "She hauls my tables, puts my tent up for me. She's pretty special, they help me a lot."
Hunter tries to have a little bit of everything at her table.
She thought Art on the Courthouse Lawn was wonderful and that people were so positive. She also had a booth set up at Potato Fest and the Oneida County Fair.
The hardest thing about her pain isn't the toll it takes on her body but that she can't visit her son who lives in Buffalo, N.Y.
She said she looks forward to visits from him.
Hunter focuses on the important things in life: her family, the immense pride she has in her grandchildren Daleigh and Trenton Neveaux, and the love she has for her husband and children.
A heart attack 14 years ago caused her to re-evaluate her life, she said.
"I had a heart attack and I've got six stents in my heart and I'm still going so that's good, but honestly I never believed when people said 'live today like it was your last day' because I was younger and I thought nothing's ever going to happen to me, but all of a sudden I had my heart attack," she said. "It was something you couldn't control, the pain, the thought of dying and I thought 'I really have wasted a lot of days.' If today is my last day how would I act and I really try to live that way."
When she sees someone having a bad day she greets them and asks how they are doing because "it really is worth it; we're all the same, we have bills to pay, problems and issues with life, but we are all the same."
For more information about Hunter's woodwork, call (715) 369-2618.
"If people want something or their kids are into something, if they just let me know I can do anything they want," she said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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