The Rag Bag
Avid GladRags enthusiast Jenny Rose shares with us the story of the rag bag and her personal account of struggling with endometriosis (and a cyst named Janice) and the relief that she has found in GladRags. Read on for some great takes on the 'Rag ~ Diana
My grandma Lucy, knitter and canner extraordinaire, sometimes mentioned the "rag bag” that she and her sisters shared. In a household of women, it was a known secret – kept under the bed and well-stocked in a family of many teenagers close in age. I don’t know if she and her sisters designed and sewed their own snapping pads or if the bag really was filled with rags as its name indicates (she died when I was 12), but I do know that she liked the quiet community it created in her childhood home. While no one fought over cleaning the rags, she and her sisters did work together to find the best and most absorbent fabrics and argued over who got to use those rags when her period came around.
In my life, GladRags have been a savior. I have endometriosis (and an ovarian cyst that I’ve carried for a year and a half and named Janice). For me, this disease means really hard-to-control periods, near-constant bloating and pain. Sometimes this pain translates to early-morning cowering on the bathroom floor – where my uterus seems to want to jump ship. Disposables make me uncomfortable and self-conscious (and also wasteful), and other reusable devices are too invasive and sometimes painful. When I discovered GladRags, well, I immediately saw a difference in my body. Not only did I feel less self-conscious and “crinkly,” I also saw a marked reduction in pain. Perhaps grandma was really onto something when she, too, sought out soft and cozy fabrics for her own monthly visitor!
Now, whenever I hear another woman discuss her cramps or her monthly pain, I always carefully introduce her to the idea of reusable pads. Sometimes they respond with disgust – since we all know women are altogether too often taught to fear and despise our bodies – but more often with curiosity and a desire to know more. “How do you clean them?", “Don’t you feel like you’re in a diaper?” and “Are they safe?” are some of the questions that arise. So, usually, I just send them a link to the site… Once they read others’ testimonials and see the pretty colors (and the simple, slim designs), well, they almost universally give them a try. And when they do, they join a new generation of women with rag bags filled with stories.
~Jenny Rose Ryan
Jenny Rose Ryan is a Seattle-based freelance writer, editor, knitter, runner, bike-rider, dog-owner, canner, container-gardener and chai-maker who also loves to read and take a deep breath or two before starting it all over again.
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October 16th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Jenny, thanks for sharing your open and heartfelt story. It’s notes like yours that make us feel validated about working at GladRags. Both my grandmothers sound a lot like yours, with quilting being their craft of choice instead of knitting. They cooked, canned, gardened and told stories. But neither of them ever shared any menstrual lore with me and that makes me a bit sad. I wish I had taken the time to ask about their experiences because even when she was in her 90s, my Granny B. would say everytime she saw me, “are you still selling those “kotex”?
October 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Ha! I love it. My mother still calls all of them “kotex,” which I’m sure she got from Lucy.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
what lovely stories!! there’s got to be some more gladraggers out there with similar grandma stories…