A big snowstorm in late winter is usually met with groans, sighs and under-your-breath cursing. Not so in the Maple Grove neighborhood of Tipperary Meadows.
In this 32-home subdivision, able-bodied residents race through fresh powder to shovel or snow blow the driveways of three neighboring families overcoming personal battles wrought by cancer or a brain tumor. Moving white stuff is just one example of how this neighborhood has rallied for the Gallaghers, Neuroths and Rhodes in the last five years. Other support has included preparing meals, sending well wishes, carpooling kids, giving restaurant gift cards, taking part in charitable events and fundraising.
The well wishes turned to condolences in February when Mimi Gallagher lost her husband, Terry, to a three-year battle with colon, liver and abdominal cancer. The widowed mother with three teenagers says some days are harder than others, but all days would be worse without the help of those she lives near. “It’s very up and down,” she says with a cracking voice. “One day I think I’m OK, and then the emotion gets the best of you. Then there are days where you don’t think you can get up, but you have to. I have three kids.”
Terry Gallagher went on short- and long-term disability with his employer, Hershey’s, as he endured four surgeries and 49 rounds of chemotherapy at the Park Nicolet Franschue Center and the Mayo Clinic. Routine overnight trips to Rochester disrupted everything from dinner at home to travel to the kids’ sporting events. “I don’t know how someone could get through this alone, especially with three kids,” Mimi Gallagher says. “You rely on the people around you to get through it.”
Those helping the Gallaghers include Kathy Neuroth and Kari Rhode—two breast cancer survivors—and Rhode’s husband, Jamie, who suffered brain damage after a tumor was removed about six years ago.
“Some of us have had a hard journey and some even harder with it ending in death,” says Neuroth, who is still on medication. “Terry taught us a lot about life. He's taught us the importance of one day. That every day is a gift.”
The Tipperary Meadows neighborhood has tried to keep the mood light with jokes such as “what’s in the water?” but has also tried to use the journey as a teaching moment because everyone diagnosed was in their 40s or younger. “It shows it can happen to everyone,” Neuroth says. “We took it as a shock because we were all very young, in shape, ate right and were healthy people.”
Jamie Rhode was 35 when he had a seizure at work. Tests revealed a golf-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. An aggressive surgery removed the tumor, but it damaged the speech and motor skills area of his brain. He had to learn how to walk and talk again. Once he did, he was back outside shoveling. “My husband will be out shoveling, and neighborhood guys will come out and offer to help,” Kari Rhode says. “But my husband’s pretty stubborn, so he is sure to try to beat people out there so others cannot do it for him.”
Before Terry Gallagher passed, they held a “celebrate life” party for him at Rush Creek Golf Course in January. About 800 people showed up, and a Terry founded a scholarship program was for the Osseo Maple Grove Hockey Association. “We are surrounded by so many people that support us and care for us,” Mimi says afterward. “I know we will be taken care of in the neighborhood, church [St. Joseph’s The Worker] and the entire city of Maple Grove.”
In the small Tipperary Meadows community, Rhode and Neuroth are thinking of new ways they can help Mimi. “What is it we can do for her?” Kari Rhode asks. “Certainly its meals and driving her kids, but it’s also trying to do things for her. She has had to be really the rock of the family for three years. It will be helping her out. We've talked about doing a spa day with her.”
Neuroth, who has also been on the receiving end of help, says, “You don't realize how much you can help.”
&
Mark August 5 and 6 on your calendar for the American Cancer Association’s 2011 Relay For Life event at Osseo Senior High School. For more information on participation or how you can contribute, go to relayforlife.org/maplegroveosseomn, call 763.441.2029 or email mgosseorfl@gmail.com.
