New York Today: Valerie Goldfein, a New Yorker of the Year
Updated, 10:46 a.m.
Good morning on this bright-and-breezy Wednesday.
This month, we asked our readers to nominate candidates for our New Yorker of the Year column. (We offered a few suggestions to get the ball rolling.) We received more than 100 submissions about model citizens who made a difference — in ways big and small — in 2016.
This week, we are highlighting a few of the exemplary (noncelebrity) neighbors you nominated. We look forward to meeting more of them in 2017. As always, if you would like to share a story, you can write to us at nytoday@nytimes.com.
Valerie Goldfein, a Brave New Yorker
At dinner parties, Valerie Goldfein felt isolated.
“I would sit there and think, ‘You don’t have cancer, you don’t have cancer, you don’t have cancer,’ ” she said. “I have cancer.”
She was 57 in 1999, and had recently been told she had ovarian cancer. That was a Monday. She had surgery on the following Thursday and began chemotherapy on Saturday.
“Whenever I would say to anyone that I have ovarian cancer, they would say, ‘Oh, that’s a tough one,’ ” Mrs. Goldfein remembered.
“As opposed to breast cancer, which is a horrific disease, but you get support, you get a shirt, you get a hat, you get a race, you get a walk,” she continued. “There’s a system in place, a strong sisterhood that has brought breast cancer to the forefront of our consciousness.”
Mrs. Goldfein felt that the same should be true for gynecologic cancers.
So in 2003, having completed treatment, she created Woman to Woman, a program at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, to support other gynecologic cancer patients. The goal was to try to lessen the isolation they often felt because of the disease, or to bolster the spirits of those who might otherwise face treatment alone and scared.
At the time, Mrs. Goldfein was on the auxiliary board of the hospital, where she had worked as the coordinator of the surgical family waiting room for 12 years. The board gave her money to get Woman to Woman off the ground. She also had the help of her oncologist, Dr. Peter Dottino, and two social workers, Arden Moulton and Rachel Justus.
Mrs. Goldfein and other volunteers and former cancer patients quickly began doing whatever they could to make these women’s circumstances more bearable. What began as a small support group in Manhattan nearly 14 years ago has, by 2016, expanded to 29 sites across the country, and is now managed by the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.
One woman, an immigrant from El Salvador who worked in a factory during the day and attended community college at night, was 37 and about to give birth when she was told she had ovarian cancer. She worried that her baby would go into foster care because she would be too sick to tend to her during chemotherapy. So Woman to Woman paid for her child care while she was receiving treatment.
When a grandmother who had end-stage ovarian cancer lamented that she had neither the strength nor the money to get her grandchildren gifts for what she knew would be her last Christmas, Woman to Woman shopped for presents for each grandchild.
Another patient facing death had this parting wish: She wanted to go to the Philippines so she could die at her mother’s side. Woman to Woman bought her a plane ticket. She made it through the flight and died shortly after, her mother nearby.
“Whatever was needed, we tried to do,” said Mrs. Goldfein, who is now 74 and cancer-free.
“There’s a saying: No one knows the road ahead like those looking back,” she added. “Our mission is that these people will never feel alone.”
Here’s what else is happening:
And just when we thought yesterday’s near-60-degree weather had us in the clear, we’re expecting a wintry mix of rain and snow later in the week.
Time to crawl back into your bear cave. Wake me up when December ends.
In the News
• A teacher in the Bronx had been caught having a sexual relationship with a student. Now, that student has been charged with murdering the woman and their 4-year-old son. [New York Times]
• For decades, the reporter Jeffrey Slonim was a friendly face on the red carpet. Then he jumped from the roof of Lincoln Center. [New York Times]
• How Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s economic growth project for an economically depressed area upstate fell apart. [New York Times]
• The Rockettes feel split over their assignment to perform at the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump. [Gothamist]
• Christmas Day has come and gone. Now, what to do with your tree? [DNAinfo]
• Coney Island will again host a large New Year’s Day “polar plunge” to raise money for sick children. [Brooklyn Paper]
• Abdou Travare has given up everything to care for his wife, who has heart disease and dementia. But every so often, he sees glimpses of her former self. [New York Times]
• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “A Grand Central Dancer, Interrupted”
• Scoreboard: Penguins waddle past Devils, 5-2. Islanders quash Capitals, 4-3. Rangers rebuff Senators, 4-3.
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Wednesday Briefing.
Coming Up Today
• Join “Star Wars” fans to honor Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the movie franchise, at Champion Pizza at 17 Cleveland Place in SoHo. 11:30 a.m. [Free pizza for those in “Star Wars” attire]
• Watch the 2016 Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament, featuring youth teams from every borough, at Al Oerter Recreation Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Free]
• Learn about George Balanchine’s contributions to film at the New York Public Library. 1 p.m. [Free]
• Take the children to Pinkalicious the Musical, a show about one girl’s obsession with the color pink, at St. George Theater on Staten Island. 6 p.m. [$25, tickets here]
• “Nutcracker Rouge,” a risqué rendition of the classic, continues at the Irondale Theater in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $90]
• Looking ahead: Join New York Road Runners for a four-mile midnight run through Central Park on New Year’s Eve. [Advance registration required]
• Knicks at Hawks, 7:30 p.m. (MSG). Nets at Bulls, 8 p.m. (YES).
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.
Commute
• Alternate-side parking: in effect until New Years Day.
And Finally...
Maybe you got fired.
Maybe you were dumped.
Maybe your favored presidential candidate was not elected.
Maybe your doctor said you had a severe allergy to chocolate.
Or maybe you purchased a pricey “Hamilton” ticket, only to realize it was fake.
Whatever your worst memory of 2016, today is Good Riddance Day, a chance to formally let it go and move on.
Between noon and 1 p.m., there will be a giant shredder in Times Square, on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets. You can write your unpleasant memory on a piece of paper, destroy it in this communal shredder and make room for warmer, fuzzier thoughts in 2017.
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p.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/nyregion/new-york-todays-new-yorkers-of-the-year-valerie-goldfein.html
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