“I was totally alone when I came to The Wellness Community – West Los Angeles.  I felt as if arms were surrounding me, it was a gift from God, a home away from home.  TWC-WLA became my California family.”

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Overwhelmed and exhausted, Eileen looked for ‘signs’ to help her decide what to do when her oncologist said, “There’s nothing more I can do for you”.  Eileen and her husband, Don, live in Narragansett, Rhode Island, but she commuted to Boston, Massachusetts to the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital for treatments and tests for Stage 4 Melanoma.  What started as a primary tumor in her lung had metastasized to the brain, breast, and chest wall.  She had undergone surgery, gamma knife radiation, chemotherapy and rehab (to re-learn how to walk and talk) and now was feeling like everything in her life ‘smelled sick’. 

After spending three days in deep depression and sitting on the “pity potty”, she and her husband got busy looking for experimental treatments throughout the United States.  They were told about a clinical trial for melanoma at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA.  Although it was a long shot, her faith in God helped her make the decision.  Surprised that she qualified for the clinical trial, Eileen enrolled even though it meant that she’d be spending the next year commuting to California alone and without family and friends.

While attending a medical appointment at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, Eileen saw a brochure for The Wellness Community-WLA.  She perused the calendar of programs and found the perfect one for her – the writing group.  The Best Western Hotel she called home while in California, agreed to shuttle her back and forth, and soon Eileen was calling the writing group members her “California family”. 

The writing group, under the watchful eye of Zena Bartholomew, MFT, became a safe and nurturing place for Eileen to share.  Writing was the perfect outlet for her.  The participants in the writing group became Eileen’s family – each of them a gift from God.  Eileen retells one of the more poignant assignments given: How do you plan a vacation when you have cancer?  The responses from her friends in the group varied, which helped her to grow because she realized that there’s more than one way to look at an issue while going through cancer. 

And now four years later and in remission, she planned a trip in December especially to visit TWC–WLA to personally thank everyone for their kindness, love, and support during this most difficult time in her life.  Throughout the year, she sends cards and chocolates made in Rhode Island to the friends she calls family – her family in California.

Telling her story, Eileen says, is her way of giving back to The Wellness Community-West Los Angeles, the place she called home.