AURORA, Colorado — Sitting in her living room, Kristi Card is knitting the knots of compassion all for some of cancer's tiniest fighters.
"Kristi is like a golden soul. She is there for everybody," said longtime friend, Laura Perry.
The Littleton woman began knitting and selling scarves years ago after losing her friend to leukemia. After cancer took the lives of several kids she knew, she wanted to do more.
"I thought, you know, I want to make something more personal and [something] that will really go straight to the kids," Card said.
It's why Card began knitting personalized and colorful hats. The hats give kids, battling such a dark and devastating disease, a little warmth and brightness.
"They're precious, they're perfect and they're completely different," Perry said of her friend's hats.
Since then, Card has donated hundreds of hats to Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. All of the yarn she uses is either donated or purchased with her own money.
With each hat, Kristi says she thinks about the kids she knew — the ones who didn't make it.
"We had one little girl, Brittney, she used to come in with one of my customers," Card said. "I would always braid her hair or something fun. And she got a really bad tumor, bone tumor, and it eventually took her life. Just the bravery that this kid had..." Card recalls.
Card will never meet the kids who will receive her hats, but she said she gets just as much out of the gift as the kids who will wear them.
"Someone told me once, and it's a good analogy: the pain never goes away. Some days it's just further away. I think that's very true for families who have kids with cancer," Card said.
Molly Hendrickson anchors Denver7 in the mornings from 4:30-7 a.m. She also features a different 7Everyday Hero each week on Denver7. Follow Molly on Facebook here and Twitter here. To nominate a hero in your life, click here.
