One women’s experience with cancer

“Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors

ridiculous,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said. The 19th-century philosopher

and writer was quoted by actress Julia Sweeney as she began her

address to the sold-out crowd attending the 16th annual Circle 1000

Founders’ Brunch.

Sweeney, perhaps best known for her role on television’s Saturday

Night Live as “Androgynous Pat,” came to Newport Beach last week to

share her life story and help raise funds for the Hoag Cancer Center.

Circle 1000 organizers chaired by Vicki Booth, brought in the

community and the dollars followed. The crowd in the ballroom of the

Four Seasons Hotel in Fashion Island cheered with joy as the

announcement was made that more than $500,000 was raised, bringing

the overall dollar amount donated by Circle 1000 to more than $5

million.

The cheers over the fund-raising success turned to roaring

laughter and then tears as keynote speaker Sweeney took her

Newport-Mesa audience on a wild romp sharing her personal and family

struggle with her own cervical cancer and her brother Michael’s

non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Cancer claimed Michael’s life at the age of

31.

Sweeney took the podium and began by telling her audience that her

experience with cancer began some seven years ago, after a divorce.

“We told all of our friends that our divorce was made in heaven,”

Sweeney said, getting her first wave of laughter in the Four Seasons

ballroom.

After her divorce, she moved from New York to Los Angeles with the

hope of starting over, finding her own space and settling in to a

home of her own that she planned to share with no other person.

Soon after, younger brother Michael was diagnosed with cancer. He

also lived in Los Angeles. Michael moved in with Julia, and then

their parents joined them, coming down from Washington state.

Soon her perfect life of solitude became the recreation of a

family unit brought together under dire circumstances.

For nearly an hour at the Four Seasons Newport, Sweeney had the

crowd in the palm of her hand, sharing insight after insight on the

relationships between parents and children. The laughter she

generated was infectious. She was warm and candid. Many in the crowd

related to her often outlandish stories. In their own way, so many

had shared the experience of dealing with cancer. The audience knew

exactly where Sweeney was coming from.

In the end, her message was one of hope. Sweeney’s brother Michael

passed away, and she shared her final moments with him.

“My parents called a priest to administer last rights to Michael

in the hospital,” she said, holding back her own tears. “I was

against it because I felt it would take away whatever will he had to

continue living.”

“When the priest arrived, Michael turned to me and said, ‘This is

really cool,’ and to my amazement, the experience gave him final

moments of peace,” she said.

Laughter in the ballroom had been replaced with silence. More than

500 Hoag Hospital supporters including Circle 1000 founder Sandy

Sewell, and donors including Sheryl Anderson, underwriting chair of

the day, Arden Flamson, Hyla Bertea, Lin Auer, Nora Jorgenson

Johnson, Ginny Ueberroth, Mary Buckingham, Darlene and Walter Gerken,

Jacquelyn and Robert Dillman, Ruth Feuerstein, Jodi Greenbaum, Mary

Lyons, Mary Kay and Louis VanderMolen, Vesta Curry and Elizabeth

Colyear Vincent, silently wiped their tears, rising to offer Sweeney

a standing ovation.

The 16th annual brunch puts Sweeney in very distinguished company.

Past speakers were Nancy Reagan, Geraldine Ferraro, Peter Ueberroth,

Scott Hamilton and Harry Belafonte.

A significant portion of the funds raised by Circle 1000 is

earmarked for the Hoag Cancer staff to use in the creation of

specific vaccines for patients. The special vaccine treatment, while

very costly, has shown results.

Some major underwriters and benefactors were Stephanie and Ken

Grody, Mary and Dick Allen, Jo Ann Hertel-Koontz, Pinkie and Dennis

Terry, Bob Lucas, Julia and George Argyros, Janet and Don Ayres and

Nora Hester.

* THE CROWD appears on Thursdays and Saturdays.