Residents affix pink bows for breast cancer awareness Local family participates in memory of fallen friend BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer PHOTOS COURTESY OF CAROLINE WOODRUFF Caroline Woodruff with one of her sons, Al, 15, hung pink bows around lampposts and trees up and down Main and New streets on Sept. 29 in honor of her best friend, Maria Jamison, who died of breast cancer in March. METUCHEN - Caroline Woodruff and her family walked up and down Main and New streets on Sept. 29, placing pink bows around lampposts and trees in honor of Woodruff's best friend, Maria Jamison, who died of breast cancer in March. As Woodruff and her husband, Gary, and sons Al, 15, and Gregory, 12, (son Patrick, 19, could not attend because he was at college) wrapped the pink bows around the lampposts and trees, they asked people if they knew what the pink bow symbolized and reminded women to get their mammograms. "It's surprising that not many people know what the pink bow is for," said Caroline, who received answers of "a party" or "for a baby girl." The pink bows symbolize breast cancer awareness, and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Metuchen Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Metuchen High School community service class on the project a few years ago. "We have high school students come and put the pink bows on the lampposts every year," said Caroline, who is the office administrator for the chamber. "This year, I asked them if my family could do this in honor of my best friend." Caroline said she met Maria in the third grade. "We went to school together in Port Chester, New York," she said. "We got our first job at McDonald's together when we were 16. We also went to Berkley Business School together. Our nicknames for each other were 'schmugums.' " Caroline added that she met Gary while she was on a road trip with Maria. Although Caroline had been aware of what breast cancer was before her friend was diagnosed, she said the cancer has affected her and her family in a big way. "I didn't know anybody who had the cancer before, but now I can't help but pay attention," she said. She said Maria, who was living in Connecticut at the time, found a lump on her right breast about seven years ago when she did a self-examination while in the shower. "She was diagnosed with breast cancer, and after radiation and chemotherapy, she seemed to be clear," Caroline said. "Then she had just moved to Virginia for a few weeks and was in a bad car accident. A van jumped the median and hit the driver's side door, where she was sitting." Caroline said her friend was not able to move her arm and decided to skip her mammogram checkup that year (2004). "The following year, the doctors found breast cancer in Maria's left breast," she said. "The doctors considered this new cancer, since it occurred in a new breast." Maria described her feelings about the recurrence of the breast cancer in an article she titled "Vertical Clouds" that was published in November 2006 in the Chesterfield Observer, a community newspaper in Virginia. "I was angry," Maria wrote. "Could this be really happening? … Oh shoot, I've got to quit smoking again!" Maria decided to get genetic testing, and it revealed that she had an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer, a 20 percent chance of getting a second breast cancer, and a 44 percent chance of getting ovarian cancer. "Well, I hit the first two statistics, and I wasn't waiting around to hit the third!" she wrote. Maria wrote that the most important thing to her was to watch her two boys - Jerry and Nicholas - grow up. The boys are now ages 10 and 13. "She underwent a bilateral mastectomy and a full hysterectomy," Caroline said. "Then she underwent reconstructive surgery; however, one of the expanders got infected." Caroline said it all kind of snowballed from there in November 2006. "She got skin cancer and cracked her ribs … [the cancer] just ate at her bones," she said. The last time Caroline saw her best friend was in February. "I was able to go visit Maria on Presidents [Day] weekend," she said. "We spent a lovely weekend together. She was on oxygen at the time - Maria named the portable oxygen tank Betsy and dressed it up with a pink scarf - but she just had this tremendous outlook and attitude on life." The two of them, along with Gary, went out to dinner. "She hadn't been out to dinner for months," said Caroline. "It was wonderful." Throughout Maria's ordeal with breast cancer, she wrote down what she was experiencing. "It's funny, because she was never really a writer," said Caroline. Maria wrote about finding the lump and receiving the news that she had breast cancer at the age of 39. "Breast cancer … I said it over and over out loud so I could hear myself say the words," wrote Maria. "A million thoughts went racing through my mind … Am I going to die? I'm only 39! What about my husband? What about my kids?" Maria wrote. Doctors told Maria that for her reconstructive surgery, she needed to quit smoking and lose 30 pounds. She and her husband, Daniel, quit smoking after her last chemotherapy treatment on Sept. 6, 2006, and they both lost 20 pounds. Maria wrote that she hoped the readers of her article would take away the fact that self-examinations and annual mammograms are very important. "Both, hopefully, have saved my life … twice!" she wrote. Caroline said that when she visited her friend in February 2007, Maria was ready for what was to come. "She said she had no regrets and she had a good life," she said. "She made all the plans to have a memorial service in Virginia and a memorial service in Connecticut. She didn't want her friends from both places to travel far … she was always thinking of others." Maria asked Caroline to write her eulogy for the memorial service in Connecticut. "This was probably the hardest and most horrible thing I had to do in my life, and I hope I don't have to do another one in my life," said Caroline. "She said she would understand if I didn't want to do it, because if the tables were turned, she wasn't sure if she could do it either. But she said I should have plenty of material to use after 36 years, and I should make it funny." Caroline said that when the time came for her to write her best friend's eulogy, the words just came out. She said she also took her best friend's wishes as a challenge. "I took it as not only because I wanted to do this for my friend, but a challenge because she knew I didn't like public speaking," she said. Caroline said her friend always found a way to make her laugh. "Through this whole ordeal, I could have been a mess, but she made you cheer up on the phone," she said. Caroline read Maria's eulogy, fittingly titled "Schmugum," on April 15 in Connecticut. "I consider it an honor and privilege to have been a part of her life," said Caroline. "And I know that when my time comes, she will meet me on the other side - with a screwdriver for her and a beer for me."