Maybe she was halfway joking. The statement reads as though she thinks the wood sculpture was sentient, meaning imbued with a native intelligence. It sounds as though she’s saying the wood sculpture ‘decided’ who to make sick and affected the most ‘threatening’ targets first. I think she was using
‘black humor’, common among co-workers.
I know what sentient means, but the “joke” part still wasn’t registering with me. Thanks for your interpretation. I guess it makes sense.
I prefer the clever, pithy, funny joke to the tortured kind that needs a translator.