Dose of Healthy Laughter for Cancer Patients
Without the chance to laugh about the rigors of fighting cancer, Sara Ruckle might not have won her victory over the disease.
“Laughter makes you have the energy it takes to move away from the negative feelings of the disease,” Ruckle said on Monday night at the annual comedy bash sponsored at the Improv in Irvine by the Friends of the Wellness Community, Orange County. “It really works.”
Ruckle’s regular meetings at the Wellness Community in Santa Ana, which provides a free support network for cancer patients, enabled her to gain control of her feelings about having the disease--even made her laugh in the face of it.
“You can’t laugh about cancer with anyone as well as someone who has had cancer,” Ruckle said during the pre-performance reception. “Everyone else is too shy. You need to be with other people who’ve had the same crisis happen to them.”
At the meetings, “we laugh all the time. We talk about all of the silly things doctors have done to us. And we talk about all of the silly things those doctors would have liked to do to us.”
Cancer quickly teaches patients about what is important in life, said Dr. Harold Benjamin, founder of the Wellness Community:
“When you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, you learn to trivialize that which is trivial and deem important that which is important.”
Before settling back to watch comedians Dennis Wolfberg and Bill Engvall (winner of the 1991 American Comedy Award) bring the house down, guests--many of them cancer patients--sipped red wine, dined on manicotti or pineapple chicken and talked wellness.
Said Paula, a participant in the Wellness Community: “In a lot of support groups you come and go as you please. But with the Wellness Community, there is commitment; we go just about every week. So we develop an intimacy and a trust. We get to know each other on a deep level.”
Orange County Supervisor Harriett Wieder, board chairman of the Wellness Community, said the organization is seeing about 600 patients per month.
“It’s wonderful that we are able to provide support for so many,” Wieder said. “And so sad at the same time that there is still such a tremendous need.”
Also among guests: Carol Blanchard, executive director of the Orange County Chapter of the Wellness Community; Irv Wieder; Eileen Phillips, event co-chairwoman with Sara Ruckle; Barbara McKone; Lorene Holly; Al and Margie Bjorklund; Donna and John Crean; Joey and Sylvia Bishop; Ben and Barbara Harris; Mick Markulis; Ed and Lindi Kacic; Pat and John Kruse; Mike and Linda Keyes; Mike and Nancy Meyer; and Lila and Dr. Eric Nelson.
Bon voyage bash: UC Irvine’s Daniel G. Aldrich Society and Chancellor’s Club feted UC Irvine Chancellor Jack Peltason and his wife, Suzanne, last week at a going-away party on campus at the Montessori School.
Peltason, who will be installed as president of the University of California system in October, joined old friends such as Jean Aldrich, Mary Roosevelt and Richard and Cheryll Ruszat for the cruise-themed bash that featured a video salute to the couple.
Another farewell party is planned for the Peltasons on July 11 at Casa Pacifica in San Clemente. Gavin Herbert and Ken Khachigian will preside
“I can’t get over how nice people have been,” said Suzanne Peltason. “It’s certainly not going to be easy to leave.”
