May Evers

 

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014.

Lives in Hamburg, Germany

Website: Der Erste Fisch – Stricksocken und Textilkunst

 

Dancing, Crocheting and Needlework have been an important part of my life. With the onset of PD in 2014, my activities in the areas have intensified and become more creative. Instead of knitting garments by following set patterns I have discovered the freedom of freeform. Inspired and encouraged by my friend Ingrid Hauff, I started experimenting with needle and Yarn. I love to mix colours, patterns, materials and methods and watch how my project comes to life and becomes individual.

 

My biggest project so far, is a quilt that I am making out of around 180 stitched portraits of People with Parkinson’s from around the world. Each individual tells a story. Not only in the picture, but also to me. I have received long and very personal E-Mails from some of the participants. My portraits mark weddings and memorials, sometimes even one or the other care partner found it’s way into a square. I am still working on the quilt and plan to have it done by July 2023.

 

My second bigger project was a dance performance in which I participated in 2017. I was member of the “Freeze ‘n’ Flow” dance company. We were seven people with Parkinson’s and six professional dancers, who danced the story of a person with Parkinson’s on how she dealt with the diagnosis.

 

I also write short stories, some of them on PD, others touch on it briefly. Some of them have been published in a reader with texts by People with Parkinson’s. I also write for the German language online magazine “Parkinson Journal”. Apart from that, I am trustee to the Hilde-Ulrichs Foundation for PD studies and am fairly active in different groups, such as the German branch of PD Avengers.