Carolyn Deal was devastated. Two days earlier she had had a mammogram ”“ her first in four years ”“ then received a phone call asking her to return for an ultrasound. “They said they hadn”™t gotten a good picture, and they needed to see me again,” Deal said. “They did an ultrasound and told me they had found something and wanted to talk to my doctor. They said, ”˜Just for your peace of mind, we think you should have this addressed right away.”™ I knew it was not good.”
It wasn”™t. Deal was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer (the stages run from 1 to 4). For the next four weeks she struggled with the fear the cancer had spread as she gave her own blood ”“ “It was the height of the AIDS scare” ”“ for the radical mastectomy and lymph nodes removal she needed to undergo. The good news was that the cancer had not metastasized, and she needed neither radiation nor chemotherapy. There was no bad news. But her life had changed deeply in ways she is still exploring today, 10 years later.
“I know how devastating it is,” she said of cancer, “but there”™s a good side, too. You really do appreciate things more, you become much closer to your family and friends. And you have conversations you might not have had if the cancer never happened to you.”
Not only that, “we didn”™t realize how breast cancer had affected our company,” she said. “About 80 percent of the women in the company have been affected,” either by surviving breast cancer themselves, or having family members or friends that have had breast cancer. “People would poke their head in the door and say, ”˜Can you recommend someone for my mom.”™”
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Looking for part-time work
At the time of her cancer operation Deal was executive vice president of corporate services at William Raveis Real Estate & Home Services in Shelton, which she joined in 1978 because she wanted a part-time job. “I thought real estate was a way to be flexible and stay at home with the kids, and get out of the house because I was a little bored being at home,” she said.
Deal, her first husband and their two children had traveled around the country following his career in marketing, winding up in Connecticut in 1975. The Deals lived in Tucson, Ariz., Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati ”“ among other places ”“ before landing in Trumbull. “I was a stay-at-home mom for about six years” when the children were young, she said, but worked some office jobs in various cities as they grew. In Connecticut, she thought a job in real estate would be perfect.
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“Back in those days real estate was not a 9-to-5 job,” she said, which suited her just fine. “I interviewed with Bill Raveis about working with his company, but he said he really didn”™t want any part-time people. But he and another person my husband knew had joined together to form a relocation company,” and Raveis offered her a position. And she could work from her home. But the job turned out to be more than full time. It morphed into a career. “I just kinda got pulled into it,” she said.
Over the years Deal helped build several divisions in the growing company, including a new-homes division, an asset management division, a relocation division, and a separate company called Home-Link Services Inc. The latter was an Internet-based company she, Raveis and several members of Raveis”™ Shelton real estate agency created to link home buyers with real estate agents and services such as moving vans and mortgage companies.
“We had a call center in Shelton and became a national brand within three years,” Deal said. “Unfortunately, that was at the end of the venture capital era, the dot-coms. It was a wonderful experience and was like getting an MBA in dealing with venture capitalists, but it just ran out of money.”
Deal had left the startup before it was sold and dissolved to return to William Raveis Real Estate & Home Services as president and, the following year, 2003, chief operating officer.
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Fearing the worst
When she learned she had breast cancer, Deal decided “to be very open with it in the company,” she said. “I didn”™t keep it a secret and didn”™t want people guessing and worrying. I just felt it was better to be open with it.”
“I”™ve told people that the first three days are just devastating,” she said. “For me the emotional thing was the fear that it had spread. You can”™t sleep and need sleeping pills, but after that, it gets better. You think, ”˜This is what it is, let”™s get it taken care of.”
A few years after the operation and reconstructive surgery and her return to work, Deal asked Raveis to consider beginning a communitywide fundraising effort for breast cancer, and he formed the William Raveis Breast Cancer Research Fund, which became a passion for her. During the past three years, the effort has raised about $700,000 for local organizations doing research on or helping women who have breast cancer, including the Breast Cancer Alliance in Greenwich, the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut, and the Dana-Farber Women”™s Cancer Program in Boston (the company has offices in Massachusetts).
For the first two years, Raveis employees sponsored fundraising events in six communities, but “it was just such a time drain to put all those together,” Deal said. “We thought we could raise just as much by selling raffle tickets, and last year we did that.” Those raffle tickets, by the way, are for some pretty nifty trinkets ”“ a $9,000 bracelet, a $4,800 trip to London and Paris. “The company donates the items,” she said.
Deal said raffle tickets will go on sale this summer sometime, but that anybody wishing to donate to the breast cancer fund can check out the company Web site at www.raveis.com.
Surviving breast cancer “gives you a passion to do this, knowing there are ways to help people,” Deal said. “I told those we were giving money to that I when I give it to you, I don”™t want to get trapped into some type of fundraising that has a political or social background. I just want it to do good.”
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