Document text
Prime Times Weekly feature of the Mail Tribune , Medford, Oregon AP photo Dan De Grossa had made several pieces of furniture over the years, but to help his wife, Jo Ann, in her fight against cancer, he took on his most ambitious project -- this carousel horse. The wooden beast now stands in their living room. Unbridled inspiration Jo Ann De Grossa has always been a fan of carousels. Now there's even more reason for her to cheer them -- she says a carousel horse her husband made helped her beat cancer. The Associated Press BEND -- With his wife battling breast cancer, Dan De Grossa was hoping for a miracle. Instead, he and his wife got two. Jo Ann De Grossa beat her cancer, and during her treatments, her husband spent 10 months hand-carving a 300-pound wooden carousel horse, named Miracle. "I wanted to inspire her to fight the cancer," said Dan, 66, a retired electronics engineer. "After being married almost 45 years, she's like my right arm. It seemed to have worked." The labor of love -- a colorful horse on a brass pole -- stands in their living room now. They've even painted a wall of the room a shade of teal to match the colors on the horse. "I was so thrilled with it," she said. "I can't walk by him without touching him." Jo Ann, 64, said she fell in love with the music, the bright colors and the "happy feeling" of carousels as a young girl on the beach in Rhode Island, near where she grew up. Even now that she's a grandmother, she said she still can't get over her infatuation. "I just feel very light-hearted," she said. "I feel like all my childhood comes back." The couple keeps large picture books of carousels on their coffee table and they keep track of all the carousels still in operation. Last year while on vacation in the South, they visited a carousel carving school in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Jo Ann told her husband she wanted a horse for their house. Dan, a self-taught craftsman, had made several pieces of furniture over the years -- starting with a cedar chest he gave her as an engagement present -- but never tackled anything as challenging as carving a horse. He postponed the project, but shortly after they returned from vacation last November, his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. He knew it was time to get to work. With a book he got from the carving school as his only guide, the couple made extensive plans for the horse, making frequent stops to watch live horses during drives in the country to make sure the horse would be as realistic as possible. The couple sent away for high-end carving tools from Switzerland and contemplated every detail of the horse, including the angle of its head, the position of its feet and whether the mane should be tussled. They spent a lot of time choosing colors and even sent away for special jewels to put on the horse's bridle. "We agonized," Jo Ann said. "We obsessed, actually," Dan said. "I wanted to please her because this is her horse." After 10 months of challenging and often messy work, the finished piece -- complete with golden shoes and a rose on its side -- is more than the couple hoped for. "He also looks real; you can see the veins close to his face and his muscles bulging," said Dan. More than that, the horse made a major difference during Jo Ann's battle with cancer. "It gave me something on which to focus," she said. Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA