By Rachel
Christoferson
Georgetown University Hospital recently opened a new Family
Internet Access Center for families who want a quiet space to use their personal
computers on the Hospital's wireless Internet access system. The room
also offers a desktop computer to gain access to the Internet and is open 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
The Family
Internet Access Center provides families with access to email and
Georgetown-sponsored resources such as www.CaringBridge.org, where patients and families can build free,
personalized Web sites that support and connect loved ones during illness,
treatment and recovery. While the Family Internet Access Center is primarily for
families of patients on the 4th and 6th floors of the Concentrated Care Center,
the room is extended to families throughout the Hospital in emergency
situations.
Both Ann and Jeff lived long after their cancer diagnoses. We thank God and Georgetown for that.
— Gaynelle Chewning, widow of Jeff Chewning and close friend of Anne Chesser. |
The origin of the
Family Internet Access Center is a moving story. The room is dedicated to the
memory of two former patients of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer
Center, Jeffrey L. Chewning and Anne L. Chesser — who, along with their
families, were long-time friends. The Chewning and Chesser families donated the
computer in the room.
"During each of
Jeff's hospitalizations, I stayed at Georgetown," said his widow, Gaynelle
Chewning. "It would have been so very helpful to have had a computer nearby to
email our support group prayer requests and to receive their notes of
encouragement. It seemed too far to walk to Lombardi to use their computers or
to go to the Leavey Center, as I did not want to be away from Jeff that long."
 |
| Celebrating the formal opening of the new Family Internet Access Center included (from left) Wes Chesser; Anne P. O'Connor, RN, MSN, AOCN, clinical nurse coordinator in Lombardi; Dorothy Kavanaugh, Lombardi case manager; Gaynelle Chewning; and Sara Marion Kish, director of annual giving. |
The money donated
by the Chewnings and Chessers was raised during the third of their "Celebration
of Life Dances," which they initially held in 2004 after Jeffrey Chewning's
cancer diagnosis motivated the family to quickly move up the date of their
daughter's wedding, and the contracted band could not make the date switch.
The day of the
original wedding date, the family gathered with friends to attend what became
the first Celebration of Life Dance, while enjoying the band's music. The
families again gathered with the band a year later for a second dance, this time
making it a fundraiser for the Hospital. The third Celebration of Life Dance in
June 2007 — held in memory of Jeffrey Chewning 15 months after he passed away —
was to raise funds for the Family Internet Access Center. Anne Chesser passed
away six months later.
"We lost two
wonderful people in our lives in 21 months time," said Gaynelle Chewning. "But
Anne had been given 10 extra years and Jeff had been given 18 years since their
initial diagnoses. Many, many celebrations and living life fully had occurred
during that time. We do thank God and Georgetown for that."
