Peninsula cancer patient "blessed" by co-workers
By Tim Simmers,
Business Writer

Mary McGlynn holds the hand of Jerry Sello as she receives chemotherapy

REDWOOD CITY - Geraldine Sello is usually a spry and upbeat person. But last Dec. 16 on her 71st birthday, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer that needed immediate chemotherapy treatment, and she was terrified of what lay ahead.

A former speech pathologist, who lives alone and has no family in the area, Sello didn't think she had the strength to face those dreaded and debilitating treatments alone.

Fortunately, a band of angels showed up, and it wasn't the investment kind often referred to in Silicon Valley lingo.

The company founders and employees at the tiny Redwood City speech training outfit where she works turned into those angels. They started driving her to chemo sessions, bringing her lunch and dinner at home, making frequent phone calls to cheer her up and often staying overnight when she was weak or feverish.

"I feel blessed," said Sello, a database worker for Frederick Gilbert Associates. "It's so tender and loving what they're doing for me. I feel cherished." Now, about halfway through her chemotherapy treatments, the amazingly upbeat Sello is a living testimonial to what a small company of 16 people can do when it decides to take care of one of its own, and become an extended family.

Blessed: Having an extended family
A scrapbook in progress her coworkers put together called "United We Heal" helps a lot, too.

When news came at the office of Sello's diagnosis, company co-owner Mary McGlynn sent out an email to everybody, saying Jerry had Hodgkin's disease and would need help. In no time, people volunteered to help with driving, food runs, phone calls, whatever it took.

"Our business is about finding a voice," said McGlynn. "Each person in the company is finding one for Jerry, and their compassion is really making a difference." McGlynn said Sello's courage has also been a big morale boost for the company.

Sello's cancer is a particular challenge for her. She has an immune system that is already fragile due to Crohns disease, which she has had for many years.

Her chemotherapy injections sometimes make her sick or nauseated. And the drugs she takes before and after the treatments make her drowsy, so she can't drive herself to and from the hospital.

"Jerry was terrified when I first met her," said Dr. Paula Kushlan, Sello's oncologist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. "With all the support she gets, she's now calm and accepting of the treatment. She knows she has good days and bad days, but she knows she'll get through it." A scrapbook in progress her co-workers put together, called "United We Heal," helps a lot, too.

It's a large photo album with about 30 pages of humor, stories, poems and pictures of workers and their children. In one joke photo, several workers are mooning cancer. In some other snapshots, co-workers and their children are wearing funny wigs, making light of the fact that Sello now wears one after losing much of her hair.

One entry gives her a ticket to gripe for six minutes. Another notes Sello's new motto: "Survive, savor and smile."

"A community used to be like family, and we're just being an extended family to Jerry," said Moira Kavanaugh, the company's office manager. "We're taking care of someone we care about, and when you're allowed to do it on company time it really cements your values."

But not all employees help Sello on company time. Some of the independent contractors do it on their own time --- like Robert Fish, a speech presentation trainer. He sometimes drives Sello to chemotherapy treatments and calls her with a good word whenever he can.

"She's a sweetheart," said Fish, who has taught Sello to meditate. "There's an incredible sense of family and loyalty here, and we've got a tremendous connection with Jerry."

Rick Gilbert, who founded the company and helped spearhead the support efforts, thinks the experience has made his company "more human than ever." "We've known Jerry a long time, and we care about her as a person," said Gilbert, who freely lets workers take off during business hours to help. "It's a real struggle for her, but the staff support is heartfelt and she knows it. That support has a way of enhancing our business, too."

Gilbert and McGlynn send regular emails to company workers, detailing how Sello's treatments are going, and how she's feeling.

"One of the notes in my book says, 'Jerry, the sun is shining down on you today," said Sello, who lives in Los Altos.

"And because of my co-workers, it is," she added.