The Kindness of Strangers

A few days before Christmas, our Etsy friend Sandra lost her husband to cancer. It was discovered in an advanced state and he was gone in a matter of months, forty years old.

Sandra and her husband were self employed as restorers of historical tiles, where their country, Portugal, is famous for. When a town has a project, restorers make offertes and the cheapest get the job.

An uncertain living in the best of times, seven or eight months before his death they weren't able to work. He, too ill, she, taking care of him. They have a five years old boy.

In those hard months they depended on the income of Sandra's Etsy shop, Azulado, where she sells lovely ceramic pieces. With all the extra costs related to the illness and burial, we know that  Sandra is in big financial trouble, although she hasn't complained once. When this adds to the pain of loosing a loved one, is too much for a person to go on.

She is now trying to get an allowance from the government for her small child, but Portugal is a country in bankrupcy, so thus far she has only met a wall of bureaucracy.

Life is so fragile, and so is the web of dreams that we depend on. Everything can be taken from us in a moment. It can happen to any of us, and then we badly need the kindness of strangers.

Sandra's Etsy team, EST spirit wants to help her, and so we are organizing a raffle to collect money. There are more than FIFTY prizes to be won, all of them donated by her team members. We will run this raffle for ten days, and at the end of these ten days, more than FIFTY WINNERS will get a prize.
There are items for women, men and children, for every taste. To win, you can buy here tickets for 5$.
Buy as many as you can, the more tickets the more Sandra will get help and you the opportunity to win one of the amazing prizes. You can get an additional extra ticket if you blog about this raffle, tweet or share it on your Facebook page, just leave the link here at the comments.

If you don't feel like participating in this raffle, please do buy something from her shop. We all know how every sale counts and gives courage.

Here you can see the first five of the items that you can win, and every day we will post pictures of all the prizes that can be won. Winners will be announced after the ticket sales are closed.
All procceeds of the tickets will be going to Sandra and her son.

 Art print donated by BarbaraSzepesiSzucs

 Ceramic cup donated by BiscuitCuit

 Silk Brooch donated by Attractive1

 Crystal earrings donated by ArxRosarum

Statement ring donated by MARIAELA