Reprinted with permission,
Courtesy, Asbury Park Press, a Gannett Co. newspaper.
BY
CAROL GORGA WILLIAMS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
|
, - UFor the second Christmas in 21 years,
Judy Zocchi will be without the man she loves.
On Dec. 23, 2005, David S. Zocchi, 45, lost his nearly six-year-long
battle with brain cancer. Unlike Christmas last year, which she
spent immersed in funeral preparations, Judy Zocchi this year
is planning a holiday getaway. But David will not be far from
her thoughts.
In the year since his passing, she has motivated family and
friends to help create the David S. Zocchi Brain Tumor Center
at Monmouth Medical Center, which will be led by David's physician
and friend, Dr. Sumul N. Raval, a neurologist and neuro-oncologist
who treated David for the last two years of his life.
Raval has long dreamed of establishing a regional brain tumor
center here to help spare patients long, uncomfortable and often
painful rides to treatment centers in New York City and Philadelphia.
"The brain tumor center in New Jersey is my dream," Raval said. "A
lot of people are going to benefit from this."
It seemed only natural to the doctor that the center Monmouth
Medical Center was offering should be named for one of his patients.
And he thought this was the sort of project Judy Zocchi needed
so she wouldn't become lost in her grief.
"I think the work she did while she was going through a very
tough period in her life, this is not an ordinary thing," he
said of the Manasquan resident. "For someone who lost her young
husband, coping with her grief, this is why I wanted her to do
this. . . . I wanted her to get things going in a positive way.
I know she is going to do an even better job than we are doing
right now."
Zocchi recruited people like her friend Robert Briant Jr. to
help organize a charity golf outing to raise money for the center.
Next, she turned to her friend Beth Insabella Walsh of INSABELLADESIGN
in Red Bank to design the interior of the center.
Using her nationwide contacts in the industry, Walsh was able
to secure donations for the center from Arc-Com for fabric for
the group meeting room, waiting room task chairs and doctor's
office guest chairs, from Fromkin Brothers for carpet and vinyl,
from Michael Halebian & Co. for floor tile and corridor coverings,
from MDC Wallcovering for corridor wall coverings and from Wolf
Gordon Inc. for wall coverings for the doctor's office, group
meeting room and waiting room.
Everyone she asked said yes.
Walsh did not just accept vendors' throwaways. For example,
some of the fabrics are anti-bacterial materials perfect for
a medical setting; granite countertops were selected because
they are easy to keep clean.
"This will save us so much money," Zocchi said. "These are all
so gorgeous, expensive fabrics. . . . We're using high-end finishes."
Walsh could not provide a dollar amount for the donations, but
Zocchi noted every donation means one more dollar the center
can spend on programming. They still seek donated services for
mill work and construction, and goods such as electronics, audio
visual equipment and computers.
"We need to use our money for programming, not to pay electricians
or plumbers," Zocchi said, ever hopeful of more donations.
When the two women sat down to discuss design, they thought
about David's taste, which would have been more toward a Ralph
Lauren look. But Judy wanted a spa feel with rich deep tones
that convey comfort.
"She's been involved with us in this journey," Zocchi said of
her friend of 15 years. "She went through the whole experience
of losing Dave bit by bit. . . . This is just an extension of
that. It is just a coincidence that she has a talent that we
needed."
Zocchi's distaste for waiting rooms is acute. She sat in plenty
of them with David, each one more uncomfortable than the last,
and she was determined the center would be different. Because
of that, patients will relax in recliners while waiting to be
seen.
Right now, the 810-foot center, which has a May targeted opening,
consists of the physician's office, the group meeting room, the
research library and staff facilities. Chemotherapy will be done
in the adjacent Leon Hess Cancer Center at Monmouth. Gamma-knife
and other radiation treatments also are available there.
One of the first programs Zocchi hopes to offer is a session
that focuses on spouse-caregivers who have lost their loved ones.
She notes there are support groups for patients and caregivers
who are involved in treatment and generic grief counseling programs
but little left after one's partner dies from brain cancer.
Zocchi said she is only just beginning to experience post-traumatic
flashbacks that recall the true level of suffering endured by
her husband during his illness.
"I never realized how much he suffered because I was trying
to keep him comfortable, and he never complained," she said. "He
was so gracious."
As much as the brain tumor center was Raval's dream, it has
become Zocchi's as well.
"I just knew I had to do it," she said. For Dave.
"He was about others," she said. "Dave was very generous in
spirit, and he would be very generous about the function of this
center. He would say, "Get my name off it,' but that's not going
to happen."
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