Years of Giving Inspired by Years of Care

Gratitude can be a powerful force for good. It can inspire us to be our best selves. It can even show us a way through grief.

For the six years Dave Green was treated for cancer, the team at GBMC’s Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute provided expert care. Mary Jo, his wife of 37 years, marvels that, despite having a particularly aggressive form of thyroid cancer, Dave managed to “live life to the fullest” until his final weeks. She credits retired surgeon John R. Saunders Jr., MD, the nurses, and everyone at the Milton J. Dance Jr. Head and Neck Center with going the extra mile to give Dave his best life. At the end of his life, the team in GBMC’s Intensive Care Unit was extremely kind, she said.

In memory of Dave and the extraordinary care she witnessed, Mary Jo has contributed to the Dance Center fund each year since Dave passed away in 2006.

“I am thankful for our experience,” she said. “That’s another reason to show my gratitude. Everyone at the Dance Center was absolutely wonderful.”

In the years since Dave was their patient, Mary Jo says she will never forget their professionalism or their kindness. When Dave needed a tracheotomy, one of his doctors devised a special appliance for him. The care he received helped them both keep their spirits up.

“They couldn’t do enough for us,” she said.

Dave and Mary Jo were an unconventional couple—he was three years younger than she and she asked him out on their first date. The two met at the wedding of a mutual friend and then were part of the same group of pals who got together for fun every once in a while. When Mary Jo was invited to a party where she’d be the only guest who wasn’t part of a couple, she asked Dave to join her.

“He was very funny,” she said. “And a lot of fun!”

In fact, years later when Dave and Mary Jo were married and raising their two daughters, Jennifer and Stephanie, he still knew how to make his family laugh.

His sense of humor was one of many traits people loved about Dave. He was a hard worker who wasn’t afraid to be ambitious. He spent his career at McCormick, starting as a forklift operator and retiring as an executive. Along the way, he created his own work/life balance. He finished a bachelor's degree in 1976, after he and Mary Jo had been married for seven years. And when the kids arrived, he was an active dad. Dave adjusted his schedule, going to work before the sun was up so he could be free to attend his daughters’ swim meets. He even coached softball.

Mary Jo brought that same level of determination and focus on family to her own career. When Jennifer was just 4, Mary Jo went back to school to get her bachelor's degree, then she learned she was pregnant.

“I was in class in maternity clothes alongside 20-year-olds,” she said. As parenting demands grew, she paced her academic pursuits accordingly, completing her degree when her eldest was in high school.

Today, she continues to enjoy time with their daughters. The three women have traveled around the world together. Mary Jo enjoys the research and planning that pay off in their wonderful shared adventures. As busy as she is, Mary Jo continues her annual giving to GBMC and the Dance Center.

“I give to remember Dave and to remember the good treatment we had,” she said. Her gratitude translates into support for the program and the patients in their care today.