Published: November 26, 2008 07:59 am            

A lifesaver

Hobby helps J’ville woman contend with daily dialysis

Kathy Iden’s house is definitely one you don’t want to throw stones in — because she’s got more than 4,000 hand-crafted decorative glass items, including ornaments, suncatchers, plates, bowls and jewelry.

Jacksonville resident Iden, 55, took up her glass hobby in 1980, when a friend invited her to attend some stained-glass classes.

“I never wanted to do glass,” she remembered with a laugh. “Never even considered it. But my girlfriend wanted to take the classes. Her husband said she could if she could find someone to drive her there and take them with her.

“Once we started, though, it turned out I have a real knack for it — it was like a duck to water for me. My friend never did anything with it, but I sure did!”

She started showing her artwork in shows in New York.

“I did very well,” Iden said. “I even won some awards with some of my stuff.”

In 1995, Iden teamed up with another friend, Molly Bennett, and opened a retail shop in Buffalo, N.Y., which quickly expanded to include several consignment contracts with gift stores in Niagra and other tourist destinations and the Corning Glass Factory in New York.

“Molly was staying with me while she recuperating from an illness and wanted something to do,” Iden recalled. “We decided to start a business with our craft.”

Their specialty was — and still is — fused-glass snowflakes in a rainbow of colors, perfect for holiday decorating. It wasn’t long until the pair started marketing their snowflakes to holiday retail outlets nationwide. The pair also do hand-painted glass ornaments, which can be customized to order.

Business was so good, Iden had a cutting table custom designed to help in the manufacture of her wares.

“Colored glass comes in 2-foot by 4-foot sheets,” she explained. “Each snowflake includes 36 pieces. It would take four-and-a-half hours to cut those pieces before. With this table, I can get everything I need cut in 45 minutes, and all the pieces will be exactly the same.”

Iden sold the business in New York in 2000. When, two years ago, Bennett decided she wanted to move closer to her son and his family — Dr. Dan Bennett with East Texas Medical Center-Jacksonville — Iden decided to relocate with her friend, too.

The decision was made doubly significant since that’s about the time Iden’s End-stage Renal Disease started progressing.

“My kidneys are completely shut down,” she confessed with a slight shrug. “I do home peritoneal dialysis four times a day. Each exchange takes about an hour.”

Iden’s condition, polycystic kidneys, is genetic. She lost her grandmother to the disease. Her mom and sister received transplants. There’s a 50-50 chance her son will develop the disease as well.

“I’ve been contending with this since I was 30,” Iden said. “A normal kidney weighs about a pound. My kidneys weigh 10 pounds each.”

Iden said Bennett, a nurse, is more than her friend — she helps Iden do her treatments as well as helping establish a new glass business, Stick Lizard Glass of Texas, in Jacksonville.

“Her support means so much to me,” Iden said. “I just don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Iden said she’s voluntarily not on the transplant list, and explains the procedure would be “too much of a financial hardship for me.”

“I’m not going to rearrange my life just because I’m considered terminal,” she exclaimed, lightly smacking the arm of her chair with her palm to drive home her point. “I still travel, I still live my life. I just have to schedule it around my treatments.

“Doing my glass crafts is literally a lifesaver. It gives me something to keep my mind occupied, rather than just sitting around waiting for the end.”

        

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