na-Farber in this community is a wonderful
match,” Jim says. “We knew we wanted to do
something special.”
The inspiration came to Linda during a
tour of the Cancer Center prior to its opening.
L+M’s Mary Ann Nash took the Falcones to
the infusion rooms. Linda’s days in infusion
rooms came rushing back; tough memories to
relive. And yet, here, each infusion bay was
bright and inviting; each had natural light
through windows looking out on the woods
behind the center.
That’s when the idea hit her. “When Mary
Ann started talking about how patients
helped with the center’s design, and that we
were looking out at the area that would one
day be a Healing Garden, I started to well up
in tears. I asked Jim for a handkerchief. I said
to myself, this has got to be it. We’ve got to be
able to do this,” she said.
Linda later told Jim she wanted to fund
L+M’s Healing Garden as her birthday present. Her birthday was October 1, the same day
the Cancer Center officially opened. She asked
her husband, ‘Do you think we can afford to
do this?’
A GIFT OF HEALING
J
GROTON LONG POINT COUPLE TO FUND THERAPEUTIC HEALING GARDEN
im and Linda Falcone’s commitment to
create a Therapeutic Healing Garden at
L+M’s new Cancer Center in Waterford
cannot be mentioned without appreciation for what they have achieved in life
– financial success, a loving marriage and a
shared vision to help their community.
And yet, for a family that has battled cancer – first Linda, and, today, their son Jayson
– their vision of a serene and tranquil space
for patients, visitors and staff is also testament to their perseverance and courage in
fighting one of life’s most difficult battles.
“We want this healing garden to be unifying,” says Linda. “It will be a space for contemplation, peace, renewal, quiet reflection – something to help patients through their treatment.”
The Falcones, of Groton Long Point, have
long supported L+M. However, the story of
their major gift to the Cancer Center requires
a closer look at their struggles with cancer. For
Linda, it started years ago with a routine chest
X-Ray.
“I seemed to be perfectly healthy,” she remembers. “I had been congested and the X-ray
was part of my physical. Then I got a phone call.
They found what they believed was a tumor.”
That call began the family’s long war
against cancer. Linda had surgery. She then
underwent chemotherapy. Five years passed,
and Linda thought she was cured. But her
cancer returned, and this time it had spread
to her bones.
Caught in the fight of her life, Linda faced
a Catch-22: chemotherapy was causing a
dangerous drop in her blood platelets, which
meant she had to halt the very therapy that
was saving her life. It was recommended that
she consider hospice care.
“Then I got a miracle,” she recalls. “It was
a miracle of medical research – the very kind
of research they do at Dana-Farber. They had
discovered a new drug that became available.
It was a brand-new invention – a drug called
‘Nplate’ – and I took that once a week, and my
platelet numbers started to rise.”
Linda got better, and she resumed chemotherapy. Her cancer came under control, and it
remains under control today.
Through it all, Linda spent much time at
L+M. She also had care at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute in Boston. Fittingly, the L+M
Cancer Center is now run in affiliation with
Dana-Farber Community Cancer Care, and
Linda’s oncologist, Dr. Richard Hellman, is
medical director of the L+M Cancer Center.
The Falcones always knew they wanted to
support the new Cancer Center. “Having Da-
IT WILL BE A SPACE FOR CONTEMPLATION, PEACE, RENEWAL, QUIET
REFLECTION — SOMETHING TO HELP PATIENTS THROUGH THEIR TREATMENT.
Jim crunched the numbers. The Falcones
were in a position to make a major gift – of
$500,000 – largely because of Jim’s extraordinary success as a businessman. It’s a part of
their story that goes back decades, to the days
when Jim’s father ran a small hardware store
in Springfield, MA.
Growing up, Jim spent many school-day afternoons hanging out at that hardware store,
and, after college, armed with an accounting
degree, “I started running it like a business,”
he says.
Jim eventually grew that one small store
into a chain of Ace Hardware stores named
after his father – Rocky’s Ace Hardware. The
chain is now operated by Jim’s son, Rocco,
and it extends along the entire eastern United
States, the largest privately-held Ace dealer
in the world. Jim also develops and operates
shopping centers and retail properties.
Both Jim and Linda are quick to note: the
garden, nearly an acre in size, will be more
than pretty flowers. Healing gardens, they say,
have proven therapeutic benefits, including
fostering healing, reducing the need for some
medications and lowering stress and anxiety.
In recent months, even as the Falcones have
been busy helping plan the garden, they are
also coping with more cancer in the family.
Their son, Jayson, is fighting multiple forms of
the disease at the D’Amour Center for Cancer
Care at Baystate Health in Springfield, which
is also affiliated with Dana-Farber.
“It is a heartbreaking situation,” Linda says,
“but it is reason for us to give more and offer
more. It’s not just about my own experience. I
think very deeply about my son and anyone
else who is in that infusion room. It’s really, really tough. We’re doing this for everyone who
needs to believe they can make it. This really
is about hope.”
This article was published in April 2014. Jayson Falcone, Jim and Linda’s son, lost his fight with cancer May 29, 2014.
Jim and Linda Falcone in their Groton Long
Point home.
“I SAID TO MYSELF,
‘THIS HAS GOT TO BE
IT. WE’VE GOT TO BE
ABLE TO DO THIS.’”
— Linda Falcone
The Falcones review plans for the new healing garden with Brian Kent of Kent + Frost Landscape Architecture.