“Hope is the most powerful thing in the world”

No one likes being cooped up in a hospital room. So Maryann Corey began thinking: What if there were a way to help patients feel better and have some fun?

Hanging up the phone, Maryann Corey sighed. With the youngest of her six children now off to college, all those years she’d spent whipping up baked ziti, folding endless loads of laundry, and helping coach their sports teams were winding down.

She had her work with special education students, but afterward . . . “I actually don’t know what to do with myself,” the Forest City, Pennsylvania, mom admitted to her sister Patty—who confessed she was feeling the same way.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could live the second half of our lives doing something that would make a difference in the world?” Maryann wondered.

Hope, one bead at a time

Asthey brainstormed, Maryann knew whatever came next would be something artrelated. Growing up, she and Patty had always loved craft projects. Maryann had even studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. And just then, it struck her: Why not help children stuck in the hospital create something beautiful?

Realizing sick kids might have sensitive tummies, they settled on beading jewelry—no smelly glue or paints.

“We’ll provide the beads and help the kids make jewelry to take their minds off everything they’re going through,” Maryann explained to a hospital representative.

“That sounds wonderful!” the administrator said.

Making their way down the hospital corridor carrying a case fi lled with shining glass beads and silver charms, the sisters helped a group of young patients string everything from necklaces to ankle bracelets.

“Look how pretty!” beamed a little girl undergoing chemotherapy, modeling a bracelet on the wrist that didn’t hold her IV.

“I’m going to give this to my nurse for taking good care of me!” a young boy announced.

But afterward, as she was leaving, Maryann caught a glimpse of a little girl in a room alone, tethered to an IV pole, her head wrapped in bandages.

“Why didn’t she come to our class?” Maryann asked a nurse.

“Oh, that’s Sarah. She can’t get out of bed,” the nurse explained sadly.

All night, Maryann couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah. So the next morning, she called the hospital. “Would it be possible to work with patients at their bedside?” she asked, and Portable Playhouse (Theportable Playhouse.org) a mission to bring hope and healing through artistic expression, was born.

“I forgot I’m in the hospital!” Soon,

Maryann walked into Sarah’s room with her case. “I’m the Bead Lady. Would you like to make a bracelet with me?” Maryann asked. “Sure!” Sarah nodded. As Sarah sifted through the beads, choosing her favorites, Maryann strung them together.

“Thank you. I can’t wait to show my mom!” Sarah grinned. And Maryann knew: This was her calling.

Soon, she and Patty were at the hospital daily.

For 17-year- old Jess, time dragged as she waited for a bone marrow donor to cure her leukemia. But as she crafted dozens of vibrant necklaces, she found reason to smile.

“Stephanie feels so much better when she’s making jewelry with you!” a mom of a nineyear- old girl with stomach cancer marveled. And another child beamed: “Thanks to you, I forgot I’m in the hospital!”

And when Maryann and Patty’s sister, Colleen, was diagnosed with breast cancer, Maryann sat with her through chemotherapy, beading to lift her spirits. Today, Colleen is cancer-free, and her sisters—with a team of volunteers— not only visit pediatric units but create beaded jewelry with 200,000 patients of all ages in cancer centers from Boston to Memphis! “While beading, people’s minds are off their struggles. And when they’re relaxed, their immune systems work better— it’s that simple,” Maryann explains. “Faces light up. Smiles appear. And hearts are lifted— including ours. Hope is the most powerful thing in the world. To be able to bring that to someone who’s sick . . . it’s truly a beautiful thing!”