When Mary Strohm died from tuberculosis at the age of 42, she left behind a husband and six children. The family was literally broken apart, and her children were raised by different family members throughout Long Island.
Usually rituals and traditions help bring a family together, but the Strohm family’s bond came from something else: cancer. “This disease plagues and stalks my family,” Eddie Strohm told me when he called to tell me about his aunts, now known through their charity work as the Three Strohm Sisters.
The sisters−Jane, Kathy and Lucille−didn’t live together after their mother passed away. Kathy and Lucille grew up next door to each other, raised by their aunts. Jane, the oldest sister, stayed with their father. He died a few years after his wife Mary. Jane got married and as the sisters got older they would often get together.
Recently I sat in Kathy Strohm’s living room with Lucille and Jane, their sister-in-law Grace, nephew Eddie, and Kathy’s husband, Richard, as the three sisters told me their incredible story, often finishing each other’s sentences.
The youngest sister, Lucille, was 46 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two years later Kathy received the news that she too had breast cancer. Just six weeks later Jane got her diagnosis. “Each one of us had a different named tumor,” Kathy says, adding that she was the only one of the three sisters who had to have chemotherapy. “Five out of 12 of my lymph nodes [had cancer]. Lucille and Jane didn’t have cancer in their lymph nodes.”
But the disease didn’t end there. To get a real sense of what the Strohm family has endured, Kathy showed me a T-shirt that was given out at a family event with the Strohm family tree printed on the front. As Kathy ticked off the names on the shirt, it was stunning to see just how cancer has devastated this family. From the six Strohm siblings came 20 first cousins. Eight of the female cousins had cancer in different parts of their bodies: breast, ovaries, colon. Four of them have since passed on. Then the three sisters began counting the male cousins who had cancer. “How many?” Lucille asks. “Four,” Kathy answers. Three of the male cousins are now deceased.
Leaning over the T-shirt, Jane wiped tears from her eyes as she touched each name lovingly. “I had breast cancer. My brother Eddie was diagnosed with cancer. Frankie has prostate. Lucille had breast cancer. Cousin Barbara was the first one to have breast cancer. She was 38. And then her sister June died in her early 40’s from ovarian cancer. She left two babies,” Jane’s voice falls to a whisper. The room falls silent.
“We didn’t even get to the third generation,” Kathy interjects. “We’ve already had three [diagnosed] including Jane’s daughter, Helen, who was 46 when she got breast cancer. Cousin Linda had breast cancer and thyroid cancer, and [cousin] Barbara Ann had colon cancer,” she adds. Thankfully, all three have survived.
When Kathy first got her diagnosis, she was “a basket case,” she recalls. “I thought I was going to die.” Then she called the Adelphi Breast Cancer Action Coalition and went to their support group. “I said to myself: I’m going to fight this and stay here as long as I can.”
One of Kathy’s cousins introduced her to Dr. Samuel Waxman, founder of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF), an international organization based in Manhattan. “I liked him right away,” Kathy says. “We had a connection and he saved my life.”
The foundation’s researchers studied her family’s genes to see if they could find a correlation to the cancers but their tests were inconclusive. “I thought for sure something [genetic] would come up,” Kathy says. “Jane’s daughter had it done, too, and it didn’t come up. Dr. Waxman thinks there is definitely a genetic link but everyone would have to be tested.”
The sisters ruled out cancer clusters as a cause because so many of their family didn’t live in the same town. “I think it’s a gene in the family,” Kathy says. “It’s very prominent on the father’s side.”
It was Jane’s idea to form a family foundation. “When we were little, we went around with a can and knocked on everybody’s door for donations [to different causes],” Jane says. “She can get money out of anybody!” Lucille chimes in. Everyone laughed. They had raised money for their foundation through other organizations until Jane said to her sisters, “Let’s do this on our own.”
“Our family has always been very involved with public service,” says Eddie. “My aunts were in the Eagles Club. My uncles were some of the founding members of the Elmont Fire Department. It’s a natural progression that because something personal happened to them they would help others. We were always doing something for somebody as kids. Every family member has a responsibility to the family foundation.”
The foundation holds several fund raisers a year, including a comedy show headlined by Lucille’s son, Chris Monti, a well-known Long Island comedian. All proceeds are donated to several local charities and hospitals, all helping people with cancer. The foundation has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the SWCRF.
Eddie oversees their annual St. Patrick’s Day benefit, which donates the proceeds to the Stony Brook Hospital Pediatric Cancer Unit. “I want to keep it local,” he says. “Maybe people can’t get into Manhattan [for treatment]. We want to make sure that they have the best possible care on Long Island.”
“When we say family foundation, it’s for all types of cancer,” Kathy explains. “Most people think of breast cancer because of the three of us, but it’s all types.”
In 10 years, the Strohm Sisters have raised more than $500,000. Eddie predicts the total will continue to grow in the years to come. The sisters are starting to hand over the reins of the foundation to the third generation of Strohms. Jane is now a retired banker from Citi Bank. Her daughter, Helen, is on the board of directors of the foundation and she also volunteers to help breast cancer patients get through their ordeal. In a few weeks Lucille will be retiring from her job as a crossing guard. And Kathy? Everyone in the family says she is the heart and soul of the foundation, but she just scoffs and smiles as she looks at her sisters. She has no plans to stop what she’s doing.
Eddie summed up the sisters best when he said, “Instead of sitting at home and feeling sorry for themselves, they are out helping other people. I can speak for our whole family. We never had to spend money on a movie ticket or turn on the TV to see our heroes; they are here, right in front of us.”
For more information on the foundation go to www.ThreeStrohmSisters.org, email [email protected] or call 516-561-3512.
If you know a super woman who deserves good Fortune—and a profile—e-mail your nominations to Beverly at [email protected].