Beyond financials

Christopher Monte was the sole proprietor of a residential construction company in Northern Westchester.

His wife, Kaoru Monte, worked full-time as a textile designer at a funky Hudson River firm.

Their daughter, college sophomore Hanna Monte, was studying abroad in Seville, Spain.

So too was daughter Irie Monte; son Tomo Monte was beginning a full-time job as a teacher”™s assistant two years after graduating from college.

The 18-year Purdys residents were your average Westchester County family ”“ until five months ago ”“ when a telephone call from Hanna”™s roommate turned their lives upside down.

Hanna had to undergo emergency surgery.

Like any frantic father, Chris boarded an airplane immediately and spent two-and-a-half weeks abroad.

“Up to that point, we had no idea that (colon) cancer was involved in Hanna”™s condition,” he said. “I couldn”™t believe it at first. I guess I was in denial.”

Like any family rocked by the unexpected, the Monte”™s refused to leave Hanna”™s bedside once they returned home.

They took turns and rotated shifts at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco.

Community organizations like the Somers Lions Club, J.I.M.M.Y. Boy Foundation and Lake Purdys Property Owners Association hosted fundraisers.

But the bills were adding up.

Jobs were placed on the backburner.

“Until a year or so ago, we were pretty busy building houses and renovating,” Monte said. “Most of my clientele was down in lower Fairfield County like Greenwich, and then with the economic downturn in 2008, fortunately we had just signed a big contract at that time and that carried us over until the summer of 2009. But since summer of 2009, it”™s been kind of slow.”

Couple a Recession-hit construction business with Hanna”™s condition and Chris Monte found himself mulling over costs as minute as the $25 parking fee at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where Hanna had been transferred.

Monte had occasionally made small donations to Purdys-based nonprofit organization Friends of Karen.

“It wasn”™t until I spoke with the head of The Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center at Northern Westchester Hospital (where Hanna is now in treatment) that I finally began to understand what they did,” he said. “With two kids in college, a mortgage, taxes and paying more than $15,000 a year in health insurance fees plus a $7,500 deductible, we would have been lost without the financial assistance offered by Friends of Karen.”

Rhonda Ryan, director of family support services at the nonprofit, said that many people “think we”™re all about giving money, but that”™s the easy part.”

Friends of Karen walked the Monte”™s through a fairly painless application process, Monte said, and petitioned on their behalf with insurance and supplemental security income representatives.

“We will always provide emotional support,” said Judith Factor, executive director of Friends of Karen. “But when we look at whether or not we”™ll pay rent or utilities, we look at medical expenses and what insurance they have. We know we can”™t do it all, but we try to assess the need and come up with a plan.”

Factor said the agency served 524 families last year and that funding-wise, last year “things dipped enormously.”

“About 90 percent of our funding comes from private sources,” she said. “We have a $3 million budget and we receive about $20,000 annually from Westchester County. We”™ve always been a lean, well-run organization, but we had to cut back. We look to the private sector to provide pro bono support. But I think our cause is compelling and our operation is effective.”

Ryan said the need for a service like Friends of Karen is somewhat bittersweet.

“More families are finding us, but the challenge is that they”™re used to supporting themselves,” she said. “They feel like, ”˜I”™m failing because I can”™t take care of my family,”™ but I don”™t care how much money you make and your education. This (cancer) is too big to do on your own.”