Hello, my name is Lisa Buckley. I'm not a professional jewelry designer, just an individual who was touched by something in my life, like a lot of other people out there. I am 29 years old, married to a wonderful man, have two great children and live in the bay area. Basically I'm a homemaker. I was born with a birth defect which later led to the amputation of part of my left arm. I was in and out of the hospital and know how important financial aid organizations are. My mom and dad sought help from a few. We were always very thankful that the organizations were there when we needed help. I always wanted to give something back one day.
ABOUT CARMEN
When I was in High School, there were four of us girls who hung around together. Carmen was the one who kept us all in class, the one who got the great job through the career center, the one who had the savings account, the responsible one. She was the one years later who contracted HIV.
Carmen had moved away to the San Diego area after High School. I visited once and we never called each other much. But she always returned to the bay area during the holidays to visit family and friends. I always knew she'd call and we'd go out and do something together and catch up on what was going on with our lives.
Well Christmas had come and gone and no word from Carmen. My father just happened to move down the street from where she grew up and I knew her sister now lived there with her family. I had dropped by a few times and finally got her sister. I thought great, I'll get her number and address. She said how nice it was for me to stop by. I told her I wanted Carmen's number because she didn't call me during the holidays. She was surprised I hadn't heard that Carmen was living there again. I said no, I had no idea. Then she asked if I knew she was sick? I immediately thought cancer. Norma told me to come in the house and sit down. The first thing she said was Lisa......Carmen has AIDS. All I could hear, literally for days, was her voice saying Carmen has AIDS.
Seeing Carmen go through that illness was devastating. I admire her family for coming together to give her all the care she needed throughout her illness, especially at the end. I think about her all the time and miss her a lot.
ABOUT THE CHARM
One night I dreamt of looking in this glass case with these different types of charms in it (I collect charms for my bracelet so I guess that is where this came from.) The dream woke me up from a sound sleep. I got out of bed and wrote down the descriptions of the charms so I wouldn't forget them. It took me a long time to go back to sleep. Ideas were racing through my mind about these charms, Carmen's daughter and AIDS charities. How I could raise money for Carmen's healthy five year old daughter for college. Maybe a little fund would be worth something by the time she gets to college.
Two weeks had gone by and I still couldn't stop thinking about my dream. Then one morning I got up and was watching a morning program were there was an actor talking about a man he portrayed in a movie he made. And how he admired him for acting on all his ideas/inventions. No matter if they failed, he knew he had given it a try. So I got busy.
I went by to see Carmen's sister, who has custody of Carmen's daughter, to tell her about my idea to raise some money for college for Taylor. We would sell them to family and friends.
Working with the charms, I wanted to find a way to personalize them for people and myself. Engraving was too expensive so I decided to put the name inside the bottle with the ribbon. We were so happy with the results, it makes a very special keepsake. The plain ribbon is a great way to show your support.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to E-mail me