LANSING, Mich. – Chris Triola came to the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Herbert-Herman Cancer Center for 20 days after being diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.
Now, she has returned the only way she knows how: with art.
Triola unveiled a new textile piece in the radiology oncology waiting room, a gift of deep gratitude for the Herbert-Herman Cancer Center staff and the place where “nature and art heal.”
“I have to give something back. This is my way of saying thank you,” Triola said. “You will be brought into a world that’s very caring, very nurturing. Your whole being, your mind, is put at ease. Your anxieties, you’re told exactly what to expect, where to go, how to approach this mentally and emotionally.”
Luckily Triola’s cancer was caught early and radiation treatments went well. For Triola, the artwork represents the fragments of a difficult journey reassembled into something whole and beautiful. Each small triangle she cut and placed by hand mirrors the radiation treatments she endured. When joined together, the isolated pieces create a unified work of healing and hope.
As patients and families wait in the oncology radiology waiting room facing their own uncertain paths, Triola hopes the piece whispers what she learned: You are not alone, and beauty can grow from the hardest places.
“It’s a long process, getting it just right,” she said. Triola credits her care team, saying every staff member at the Herbert-Herman Cancer Center plays a role in healing.
“The staff is always upbeat,” Triola said. “They embrace patients. I looked forward to coming here every day.”
She also points to the Cancer Center’s design, artwork, light, and connection to nature as essential to her recovery.
“To live in beauty, or be in beauty, in a moment of great stress and anxiety is a wonderful place to be,” Triola said. “And the care and technology they used to capture this invasive thing was just spectacular. They know that nature and art heal.”
To learn more and to donate to the Cancer Center and UM Health-Sparrow, go to UofMHealthSparrow.org/um-health-sparrow-community-health/sparrow-foundation/um-health-sparrow-foundation-ways-give.
