A secret, magical garden blooms in Beachwood.
It flourishes on a third-acre lot, once a patch of weeds and rocky soil that is now an enclosed lush sanctuary. Ornamental grasses, vines and perennial flowers delight the senses.
Even in late fall and winter, visitors find peace and contentment there, if just by looking out a window. Snow settles softly on the more than 20 species of trees, and boulders glisten with frost. Benches and stone walls are sometimes swept clear of light dustings of snow and visitors sit by themselves or with others, listening to their hearts and the stillness.
This is Norma’s Garden … A Place of Healing, a botanical wonder adjacent to The Gathering Place, which opened in 2000. The nonprofit organization, offering support to those with cancer and their families and friends, was founded on a dream.
The center’s founder and CEO, Eileen Saffran, has a background in clinical social work and family medicine. She encountered many cancer patients and their families who were not receiving the emotional or spiritual help needed to see them through what she calls “the cancer journey.”
There is also a personal connection to why Saffran has such empathy. Her parents were diagnosed with cancer six months apart and died within three years of each other.
“Those experiences really opened my eyes as to what was missing,” says Saffran. “There is such a need. The Gathering Place was a great grassroots effort. We have a $2.3 million annual budget, and we are 100 percent privately funded. We are local. I can show you exactly where your $10 donation goes. And, like cancer, we have no prejudice. We offer anyone of any color the support needed if they find the courage to walk through our doors.”
And while many of the participants who come to The Gathering Place each year do so with little hesitation, it is harder for others to make those first steps. (The center has served more than 37,000 people touched by cancer through more than 291,000 visits. A smaller, sister facility with the same goals also exists in Westlake.)
“Some people say to me they have sat in our parking lot and not come in. When they finally do, it takes courage,” says Saffran. “For them it is an acknowledgement of what is happening and that they have needs they can’t meet by themselves.”
Removing any barriers to coming to The Gathering Place is imperative. So services are free, and transportation and childcare can be arranged if necessary.
The Gathering Place is not hospice, but a chance to find peace, an opportunity to break the isolation that often occurs when faced with a serious illness and a chance for family and friends to cope. It is also a beehive of activity minus the frantic pace.
Support groups address the emotional impact that cancer has on those diagnosed with the disease and on those who love them. Groups include: those for all cancer types or specific cancers; young adults with cancer; older adults with cancer; survivors; and caregivers. Art and music therapy, photography, book discussions and journaling also are offered.
Classes and treatments designed to the relieve stress and the side effects of cancer and its treatment include yoga, tai chi, Reiki, qigong and reflexology. Nutrition classes are hands-on cooking classes, sometimes using herbs grown in Norma’s Garden.
“Nutrition and exercise are the two areas that we didn’t start with that have grown the most robustly,” says Saffran. “They are dimensions of one’s life that can be controlled. A person can’t always control treatment except to refuse it. These classes are very well-received.”
The center also includes a library and a wig salon that has provided more than 3,300 free wigs.
If Saffran has a regret, it is that The Gathering Place can’t be in more locations in Northeast Ohio — urban, suburban and country sites. Fundraisers, including the annual Race for the Place and the Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival (Saffron is the drumbeater for her boat’s crew), help pay bills. But more locations aren’t feasible.
However, The Gathering Place is moving its Westlake facility to a larger location at Cuyahoga Community College Corporate College West. Opening is scheduled for July 2017.
“We are only able to do what we do because of the generosity of others,” says Saffran. “Fundraising is the most challenging for me. Westlake opened in 2008 and more than 8,000 individuals have visited. But we need more space. Our capital campaign for $600,000 to renovate the new Westlake space is under way.”
The new facility will be named in honor of Sandy Borrelli, a cancer survivor and co-owner of Bella Capelli Sanctuario beauty salon in Westlake. Borrelli’s business partner and friends are raising more than $150,000 to honor her courage and dedication to The Gathering Place, where she has been a participant since 2007 and a board member since 2008.
“When I found out I had cancer, I wanted to live and live well for the amount of time I had,” says Borrelli. “The Gathering Place gave me that opportunity. I want to remind others that there is nowhere else like this that can provide such comfort and privacy. I am totally devoted to The Gathering Place for the rest of my life.”