A Marriage of Service to Others

It was a nice surprise. As she was moving in, one of Linda Kaufman’s new neighbors called out in recognition. It wasn’t Linda whom the woman recognized, it was her dog, Hannah.

Linda and her late husband, Buddy, were longtime volunteers at GBMC – Linda served for 15 years; Buddy started soon after she did – but Hannah was the star. With Buddy holding the leash, the petite pup, a Schnauzer mix, was a popular visitor with patients across the hospital, especially in the Lois Harvey Miller Infusion Center. For several years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hannah and Buddy brightened even the most challenging of days for thousands of patients. It’s a time Linda looks back on with pride.

Much of Linda’s volunteer time was dedicated to helping patients and the loved ones waiting for them in the General Operating Room (GOR). She was there every Friday morning, 7:30 to 11:30 a.m., signing patients in and supporting their family members.

“You could tell the doctors appreciated the volunteers,” she recalled. “They always thanked us.”

When she and Buddy were both in the GOR, she remembers retired surgeon Dr. John Saunders exclaiming, “The Kaufmans are here together!”

Among her many tasks was writing down for the surgeon a brief description of what the waiting family member was wearing and where they were seated, enabling the surgeon to find them quickly to give a post-operative report. This did more than save time. When they needed it most, it gave the family member a sense of connection to the busy surgeon, who often had multiple procedures in any given day.

And when someone needed help finding their way from one part of GBMC to another, Linda was ready to help.

“I always took them, rather than give directions. I knew all the shortcuts,” she beamed.

With the opening of the Louis and Phyllis Friedman Building last fall and the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion now under construction, Linda is a little less confident of her inner GBMC compass. Yet, she and Buddy will become permanently connected to GBMC when the Berman Pavilion opens. In gratitude for their gift to the Berman Pavilion capital campaign, the new Integrative Wellness Palliative Medicine Center will include the Linda and Buddy Kaufman Wellness Center. The multi-purpose room will host support groups, yoga classes and countless other programs that will help patients and survivors living with cancer.

Linda’s experience as a cancer patient at GBMC inspired her to give. She credits Gary I. Cohen, MD, FACP, FASCO, with saving her life when he arranged for her participation in a clinical trial.

In recent years, GBMC’s embrace of Integrative Wellness Palliative Medicine, which was added to the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute by Herman and Walter Samuelson Medical Director Paul Celano, MD, FACP, FASCO, sparked her interest.

“I believe in mind-body therapies that work alongside medical treatments,” Linda explained. “This feels like a natural fit to me.”

The room will celebrate a couple who devoted much of their lives to serving others. After their children, Steven and Amy, were grown and Buddy sold his business, Equipment Leasing, they both became active volunteers. In addition to her work at GBMC, Linda volunteered with Jewish Family Services (JFS) Mitzvah Mobility.

In 1990, the family took on more personal volunteer work when they founded the Steven Kaufman AIDS Outreach Project through JFS. When Steven died from AIDS, they turned that tragic loss into support for patients, caregivers, parents, partners, and anyone in the community who had been touched by AIDS. They facilitated meetings and shared information in schools about AIDS treatment and prevention for 10 years, determined to remove the stigma that prevented Steven from speaking up when he was diagnosed in the early ‘80s.

Now that she has retired from volunteering, Linda is glad to know the couple’s legacy at GBMC will live on, not only in the new home of the Berman Cancer Institute, but in the hearts of grateful patients across the region.