Right after the Garfield County Fair ended last year, Lori Platt started her seventh miniature entry for the following year; this time it would be a gnome home.
Lori’s previous entries have included a haunted house, a water mill, a treehouse, a pirate ship, and a 1920s scene set inside an antique radio cabinet. And she does all this without a pattern. She designs them from her imagination and creative resources.
Some of Lori’s creations are on display in the Bryce Valley Elementary library. One student asked if Lori would teach him how to make one. Lori responded that it takes a long time. His friend chimed in, “Yea, it probably took her all day.” In reality, it takes her all year.
Lori felt an urgency to start early this year but didn’t know why. Creating her miniatures is a creative outlet and stress reliever for her. One son teased, “With everything going on, I bet you’ll be working on your miniature a lot this year.” That proved to be prophetic in a way.
And so, heeding an unknown urgency, Lori worked on her gnome home as much as she could. She began to tire a lot, more than from the usual busyness a mother with 15 children might feel. She thought the tiredness might be attributed to an emotional shift even though she wasn’t sad, so she worked on the gnome home even more to offset the mood, but the fatigue continued.
In late October, Lori found a lump under her skin, and she knew why she felt the urgency and the fatigue. By then, she’d cut out the walls and had the stone attached to the PVC tower/turret, yet none of it was assembled. The house would wait while she focused on her health.
She started tests, mammograms, and biopsies. She received the call with cancer results while at work the day after a daughter had left on a mission for the LDS church. As her son said, Lori did have a lot going on.
The chemotherapy treatments started in December. She felt worse with each treatment as they got harder and harder. When she felt a reprieve, Lori worked on the gnome home as a distraction.
By March, Lori knew she was out of time to finish before the fair. “I don’t think I can finish it,” she told her family. She could see it waiting for her in the laundry room from where she sat on the couch in the living room. “I’m okay with not completing it.”
But her children weren’t having it. Her youngest, Alissa, age 8, encouraged, “You can do it, Mom, if you work really hard. You always tell us to never give up. You can finish it if you try hard.”
Lori had surgery in April and started radiation treatments in June, and though she was no longer sick, she was very tired. Afterward, there was a mix-up, which Lori came to see as a divine intervention. The postoperative medicine she was supposed to take wasn’t available for three weeks. This gave her an emotional and physical reprieve. She took advantage of the break and made a big push to work on the gnome home.
Then the medicine arrived, and she was tired again — not just tired, but it took away all her motivation. Lori learned that her daughters were praying their mom would be able to finish her project. When Lori saw how important it was to her children to see it through to the end, she rallied.
Her children would sit on a chair in the laundry room and visit with her while she worked. When she was making miniatures for the gnome kitchenware, her children played with the clay too. When she needed turf surrounding the home, the children shook up sawdust and green acrylic paint in a pickle jar. Her daughter Kira helped her wipe grout off the rock tower wall.
Lori spends hours designing and imagining new projects. She loves learning new things, so each successive project has been more challenging. A couple of years ago Lori’s husband, Nathan, taught her how to run copper wires for LED lights, but he doesn’t have a clue how she is able to create an entire masterpiece. He just shakes his head in wonderment.
Friends and neighbors supported Lori by donating construction scraps and upholstery fabric. With all that support, Lori completed the project in time to submit to the Garfield County Fair for a magnificent purple ribbon.
Kira said, “Mom, I am so proud of you.”
The cancer center in Cedar City is decorated with gnomes. That didn’t feel like a coincidence to Lori, who selected her theme long before her diagnosis. She said that completing this project is something that cancer has not been able to take away from her.
By finishing her gnome home, Lori won much more than the grand prize ribbon.
– by Karen Munson
Feature image caption: Lori’s gnome home received the purple grand prize ribbon at the Garfield County Fair, 2024.
Karen M. Munson – Escalante
Karen is an associate editor at The Byway. She is fascinated and fulfilled by all things involved with writing. After graduating from BYU, she taught English at Escalante High School for three years. She pursues opportunities to write and support others in their writing. Karen has published three books with four more scheduled to be released in 2024. She and Reed are the parents of ten children and the grandparents of 35 grandchildren.
Karen is the author of the New Twist on Mental Health column in The Byway.