Without a touch or smile, a stranger nevertheless can be wonderful support. From Snohomish to Washington, D.C., words carry comfort from a ChemoAngel to a cancer patient.
ChemoAngels are kind volunteers who send cards and gifts to those with cancer, hoping to add a ray of sunshine to those in the battle.
Kim Mortiz of Snohomish is an angel for Cindi Gibbs, 37, who lives in Washington, D.C. Gibbs said when she first heard the words “You have cancer,” she felt like she had collided with a truck.
“I wasn’t prepared, and remember wanting to just get started with treatment so I could remove the cancer from my body as quickly as possible,” Gibbs said. “There were a lot of emotions I went through: shock (‘I can’t believe this’), anger (‘Why me?’), fear (‘Am I going to live?’), denial (‘Maybe this is just a lab error’), sadness (‘I’m going to lose my hair and breasts’), and guilt (‘Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten so many French fries as a teenager’).”
Finally, Gibbs said, she accepted her diagnosis and decided to fight cancer with all that she had.
“My perspective on life changed drastically, and instead of focusing on all that I was losing, I directed my energies on all of the many gifts that cancer brought to my life: family, friends and co-workers who offered support; renewed faith; a short, curly, new hairdo that was easier to care for; breast implants that will never go south; and a reminder to stop and smell the roses every day of my life,” Gibbs said. “I was able to slow down and take a deep breath, figure out what matters most in my life, and follow that path.”
Fear has a way of creeping in, the elementary school administrator said, and her ChemoAngel helped keep her spirits up.
Moritz, 41, a Snohomish school teacher, said her large Italian family has been hit hard by cancer, including her mother, who has been battling ovarian cancer for the past seven years.
Knowing the trials and tribulations of dealing with the disease, she said she wanted to do something to help people who were going through the same things.
“Even though they were going through the toughest time in their lives, I wanted to give them a boost and get them excited about living again,” Moritz said. “I just didn’t know how to do it.”
In 2004, People magazine wrote about ChemoAngels.
Moritz found her calling.
“It takes so little time out of my life to enrich someone who is going through a tough time,” she said. “I filled out the questionnaire that evening and waited for a response.”
ChemoAngels may send inexpensive gifts and notes. It’s not a pen-pal program, unless the patient is up to it. For more information, visit www.chemo angels.com.
Moritz was anxious to do the work of an angel.
“I started sending her cards and little gifts, like a knitted cap she could wear once she lost her hair, puzzles to work on while in treatment, treats and just encouragement to get her through the tough times,” Moritz said. “After about a month of sending her things, I received a letter from her, with a picture of her in New York, before she was diagnosed, and she had hair.”
They began to send e-mails back and forth and became great friends, both said. Buddy momentum built through the first year.
They talked as best friends do.
“We shared our joys as well as our sadness,” Moritz said. “We vented to each other when we needed to and gave advice to each other when asked.”
They found much in common, from wearing mouth guards to bed to loving the outdoors.
Their circle will close when Gibbs arrives in Seattle on Thursday for a visit.
“I am going to take her to the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and go antique shopping in Snohomish,” Moritz said. “I will have her meet my family, including my mother and father. She has heard so much about them as well as my brothers and sisters.”
Moritz said she went into this program in hopes of helping someone going through a difficult time in their lives.
“Never in a million years did I think I would find a true friend,” she said. “It is mind boggling.”
One never knows where they might find a best friend, or angel, Cindy Gibbs said.
“I can’t thank ChemoAngels enough for bringing Kim into my life at a time when I needed friends the most,” she said. “She has been my absolute best buddy and gives me hope and inspiration.”
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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