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Brain Cancer Victim Loses 1-year Battle

By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI
jduchnowski@nwherald.com

McCullom LAKE – Julianna Mass always had an open door and an extra plate at the table for friends of her seven children.

The single mom had quiet expectations for her brood, sending them to Catholic school and college as she worked as a nurse. She started a home health care business with her sister, Terry McConville, and later was a neonatal nurse at Memorial Medical Center in Woodstock, among other jobs.

Mass spent much of her life caring for others, and her children didn’t hesitate to come to her side when she was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer called glioblstoma multiforme in October 2006.

Her youngest, Kristin Mass, sold a house in Missouri in December 2006 to move back to the family’s McCullom Lake home to care for her. Her other daughter, Kathleen Lutz, and Lutz’s three young children came from Boston for six months earlier this year. Andy Mass, the second oldest, moved in about six months ago.

Her grown children worked as a team to give her around-the-clock care, and Julianna Mass, 68, lived six months longer than her doctors predicted she would. She died Sunday in a son’s arms after spending quiet time with several family members.

"You always think there’s more time, another day," Lutz said softly Monday evening.

Julianna Mass is the second plaintiff involved in the McCullom Lake cancer lawsuits to die this month. Marion Kane, 75 of Fox Lake died Dec. 15, about three months after she was diagnosed.

Twenty-two brain cancer victims or their families are suing three Ringwood manufacturers, alleging pollution in McCullom Lake’s groundwater caused their illnesses. Seven of the eight deceased victims involved in the case, including Kane, died of glioblstoma multiforme, which gives only 3 percent of its patients hope of living five years beyond their diagnosis.

Julianna Mass joined the lawsuit about a month after her diagnosis, when her fight against the cancer only had begun.

Her oldest son, Mark Mass, an emergency room doctor in Lake Forest, recommended a premier neurosurgeon in Evanston who removed much of the tumor.

Then, Julianna Mass had 6 weeks of radiation therapy and two rounds of chemotherapy, but doctors gave her a month to live when they found new tumor growth in May.

She lived to have multiple Christmas celebrations with various gatherings of her large family, which includes 14 grandchildren.

"Christmas was always a special time," said her son Mike Mass. "I think this year she fought to hold on for Christmas."

Her legacy will not be her cancer or the questions surrounding its cause but her strong values, nurturing nature and dedication to her family.

"I will always be able to refer back to her," Mike Mass said. "You can think, ‘What would Mom have done?’ She made all the right decisions, even if the right thing wasn’t easy."

Kristin Mass said her mom had such a strong character and spirit. Julianna Mass had little time for hobbies aside from gardening as her children were growing up. However, she back-packed through Europe and went bungee-jumping in New Zealand with Kristin Mass in her 60s.

"She just taught us many qualities and values about how to live your life," she said, "and how to love your family."

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