Melrose family walks with full hearts
Josh Reynolds/for the Globe
Stacey Chicoine, center, holding her 19-month-old son, Will Chicoine, with, from left, niece Ashley Auger, 19, holding Stacey's daughter Jacqlyn Chicoine, sisters-in-law Danielle Auger, Dana Chicoine, and niece Alissa Auger, 17, are all walking in the Jimmy Fund Boston Marathon Walk on Sept. 12, one year after Stacey's husband and Dana and Danielle's brother, Joe Chicoine, died of brain cancer.
Just about a year ago, as Melrose's Stacey Chicoine pushed her twin babies along the course of the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk, the experience was surreal.Just two weeks before, on Aug. 30, her husband Joe had succumbed to brain cancer. He was 42.
"I think I walked in a daze," recalled Chicoine, who also lost her father, Ron Pines of Framingham, to cancer. "This year is different. I'm on a mission."
For the fourth year, Chicoine will be walking. This year's event is on Sunday, and she will have plenty of company: Joe's two sisters and two nieces have joined the nearly 8,000 participants in the Jimmy Fund Walk, with the goal to raise more than $6.5 million for The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Walkers leave from four spots, on courses from 26.2 miles to 3 miles, ending up at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The goal is to raise both awareness and money for cancer care and research. In its 22-year history, the walk has generated more than $66 million.
"I felt helpless, and this was a way to do something to feel I was giving back in some way," said Auger, whose daughters Ashley, 19 and Alissa, 17, also will be walking this year. "When we signed up, we didn't know we'd be walking without him with us. That brought a lot more meaning to it."
For Joe Chicoine, the July 2008 cancer diagnosis came just before he and his wife learned they were going to have twins.
"He was very healthy, very successful, a great guy, very generous," Dana Chicoine, 36, said of her only brother, who started a successful HVAC business from his parents' home.
As Joe worked through multiple treatments, the family gained a great appreciation for the medical team that worked with him.
The doctors' goal, they said, was to give him time to see his son and
daughter born, and experience the early months of their lives with the
best quality of life that he could. The twins were born in February
2009, and he died six months later.
"Joe believed we had to deal with the cards we were dealt, and he had a
saying, 'It is what it is.'" Stacey recalled. "He never did a 'woe is
me,' but he fought to the end."
Between them, the five women hope to raise about $1,300.
Joe's death has inspired others to give to the fight against cancer as
well. Instead of passing out wedding favors, one of Stacey's friends
made donations to the American Cancer Society in his name. His friend
Kevin McSweeney of Topsfield has ridden the Pan-Mass Challenge, a
fund-raising bicycle ride, in Joe's name for two years.
Danielle and Dana walked together last year, taking the 13-mile course from Babson University into Boston.
"To walk and see the families and children, the survivors, was very
touching," said Danielle. "My sister and I pretty much cried through
all 13 miles."
The emotions that came with seeing the posters and support along the
route from survivors and their family was "More than I can describe,"
she said.
For a while, they walked behind a family whose T-shirts described them
as "Joe's Mom," "Joe's Dad," "Joe's Sister," and "Joe's Aunt."
As they got closer and talked with the family, they could read the front of the T-shirt of the bald 10-year-old boy.
It read, "I'm Joe."
"He was a survivor," said Danielle, who recalled that she and her
sister gave the little boy a hug. "He was the cutest little boy, and he
was fighting it. It was very touching."
For more information about the Jimmy Fund Walk, go to www.jimmyfundwalk.org.
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