The last few months I have been writing about professional puppet creator Irene of Nenas Puppet Pals Shop on Etsy and how she creatively and uniquely adapts my animal and people puppet sewing patterns to meet the needs of her customers. Her customers’ requests range from gifts to friends and family to puppets used in professional settings. Puppets can be used for the usual reasons: entertainment, various forms of therapy, bringing story time to life, as a silent reading partner for kids learning to read, vacation Bible school. They can also be used for the more serious life challenges.
Puppet Ministry for Children with Brain Cancer
Tears came to my eyes when I learned the story behind this gentleman holding two puppets. He contacted Irene and asked her to make a puppet that was a likeness of himself. He also wanted her to put a scar on the top of the puppet’s head to resemble the scar on the top of his head due to surgery for brain cancer. He asked her to make a cat puppet wearing a lob coat to play the part of the doctor. He was going to use the two puppets to help ease children’s fears who were going to go through the surgery like he did. I’m sure that with his look of hopefulness, happiness and friendliness along with his two puppet partners he was able to bring some laughter and hope to the children he ministered to. Puppets have a way of being less intimidating and making scary things less scary. Sometimes that’s all a kid needs during an unsure and frightening time. Puppets are perfect therapists for times like that.
