Homes With A Heart

BY CARYN HUBERMAN YACOWITZ

FALL 2002 - Each year more than 1,000 young patients come to Packard from outside the region. They travel from other states or even foreign countries. Many of these children face weeks, sometimes months, of care. During their child's treatment, parents must remain near the hospital. Homes With a Heart provides desperately needed shelter and comfort to these uprooted families by matching patient families in need of housing with families willing to offer the use of a guest cottage or a room in their home. Here are a few examples of matches that have benefited both patient and host families alike.

Nurturing the Whole Family

Although Stanford's Fertility Clinic had given Mary and Tony Goulart just a 4 percent chance to conceive another child, on June 15, 2001, they learned Mary was pregnant. During amniocentesis on September 10, they discovered their baby was a boy. Their joy was shattered a few minutes later when they were told the fetus had a major problem with his heart. He was suffering from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and would require extensive surgery immediately after birth.

In a state of personal shock, the Goularts became part of a nation in mourning the following day, September 11. Fetal cardiograms revealed additional critical conditions. They did not know what kind of life lay ahead for their child. They were told they had to remain near Packard before and after the baby's birth. Tony and Mary put their faith in their church and in the doctors, nurses, and support staff at Packard.

Then some good news came their way. About a month before Joshua's birth, the Goularts learned that Homes With A Heart had a place for them to live while Joshua was in the hospital. "It was just 10 minutes from the hospital, had four bedrooms, two and- a-half baths, 2,000 square feet for the bargain price of ... free!" relates Tony. "The incredible family donating it wanted nothing but to help families in need. This blessing was one of very few to fall upon us during this most challenging time."

"Having the house enabled us to maintain our relationship with our other child," Mary recalls. Eight-year-old Rachel lived in Campbell with her grandmother through much of the ordeal, but was able to be with her parents on weekends. She even had her own room. And, when Tony's mother unexpectedly died just two weeks before Joshua was born, Tony's stepfather could be with them to mourn and seek comfort.

Joshua is now doing well, weighing a strapping 15 pounds at three and a half months of age. Although Joshua must undergo more surgery, Mary and Tony are optimistic.

Mary smiles when she imagines taking Joshua to see the house when he is older. "We'll drive by and show him the special house we called home when he was born."

The Little House That's All Heart

We wanted to offer a quiet haven to come home to ... a place of peace and solitude," says Shirley Hagey of Palo Alto. Shirley and her husband, Harry, have opened wide the doors of their lovely guest house, set in a fragrant garden. "La Casita", Spanish for "Little House," has been home to nine patient families since February 2000.

"Homes With A Heart has sent us wonderful families," Shirley says. Harry agrees, as does their daughter,Whitney, a senior at Palo Alto High School. The Hageys have enjoyed getting to know patient families from Hawaii,Washington, and Northern California whom they've hosted for periods of several weeks to five months.

"It takes one of the uncertainties away for parents with a seriously ill child to have a place to call home," Harry points out.

The Hageys were inspired to share their beloved Casita after various friends needed transitional housing during life-changing times such as divorce. They decided La Casita should never be rented out. "We wanted to do something needed," they say.

The Jackson family from Washington State stayed in La Casita for several months awaiting a heart transplant for 4-year-old Casey. Keri Jackson, a physician, says "Living in La Casita gave us time to create stability for the rest of the family and to decide what to do." Their older daughter, Reilly, settled into school and developed friendships while Keri and her husband considered moving to the area. "La Casita is a place of healing, near the Hospital, in a wonderful neighborhood. I could slow down and breathe!" Keri recalls.

Both the Hageys and the Jackson girls fondly remember adventures they shared, like the nighttime snail hunt in La Casita's garden. Keri also remembers the hundreds of golden daffodils that covered the grounds when they first moved in. The Jacksons recently relocated to Palo Alto and now live in their own home, minutes from the Hageys.

Reminders of guests' lives and appreciation are evident throughout the cottage. A lovely seascape painted by a teenage boy who received a bone marrow transplant hangs near a ceramic plate, a gift from the Jacksons. Bicycles were left by another family for future occupants of the little house with a big heart.

A Long Way from Home

"The kids were wearing their house slippers on the plane -- we had to get here fast!" recalls Wallette Kawaiaea of the flight from their home in Maui to the mainland. Their destination was Packard Hospital and their goal was to get a new heart for their active 11-year-old daughter, Daphne. At first Wallette and her husband,Milton, thought Daphne, a champion rodeo rider, had the flu. But doctors in Hawaii quickly discovered that her heart was enlarged and had been badly scarred by a virus. They flew to Packard, where five days later Daphne got a new heart. Her recovery astounded her doctors. "What can I eat?" were her first words following surgery.

However, Daphne required three to six months of monitoring following surgery. She had to have a biopsy every month to make sure her body was not rejecting the new heart. Daphne and her mother needed to be near the Hospital. They needed a home.

Homes With A Heart located a cozy, shingled guest cottage in a setting Wallete describes as "like a resort."

"It's just minutes from the hospital. We come and go as we please,"Wallete says of their charming home away from home. Daphne loves reading Beverly Cleary books while stretched out on a lawn chair in the secluded secret garden. She and her brother, Derek, who is staying at the cottage to help drive Daphne and Wallette to appointments, enjoy watching the host family's two small boys ride their tricycles around a paved exercise track. The little boys, in turn, are fascinated with Derek's fancy rodeo roping techniques.

Having a proper kitchen allows Wallette to prepare fresh, low-salt foods for Daphne. Although Daphne would prefer Lomi Lomi (salted salmon with onions or tomatoes), she must follow a strict post-transplant diet as well as take 20 medications a day.

Their Homes With A Heart host family seems to take it as a given that what they have, they share.

The young mother of two, with one on the way, explains that she and her husband know they wanted the cottage to have a good use -- to "mean something." It does. It means home.