Community steps up to help girl, family
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
DOWNINGTOWN — While Paul and Ann Zahner were at the hospital bedside of their 9-year-old daughter Molly during her first round of chemotherapy treatments, fellow parishioners from St. Joseph in Downingtown descended upon their home and cleaned it from floor to ceiling. Then they mowed the lawn.
“They’ve been phenomenal,” Paul Zahner said of both the parish and school, where Molly is a fourth-grader.
Paul and Ann Zahner, 1991 alums of Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, know they can count on the Church as they tend to Molly, who on June 19 was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, just six days before her birthday.
The parish and school communities of St. Joseph in Downingtown and St. Kevin in Springfield — where Molly’s grandmother, Ann Farren, and maternal aunt, Maureen Brant, are teachers—and numerous other Catholics in the surrounding communities take turns preparing the Zahners home-cooked meals and buying the family groceries, cleaning supplies and other sundries.
“We have a year supply of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish in our basement,” Paul Zahner said of the generous donation of crackers.
Those snacks will come in handy for Molly and her five siblings: Noah, who turns 7 on Aug. 1; Erin, 5; Emma, 3; Kaleigh, who will be 2 on Aug. 10 and Joshua, who is 4 months old.
According to Ann Zahner’s latest count, the youngest children are equipped with a two-year-supply of diapers.
“It’s just amazing,” added Ann, who is a pediatric oncology nurse. “We’re so overwhelmed by everybody’s generosity.”
Liz Kinsch, 25, also a member of St. Joseph Parish, is the Zahner family’s point person who tracks what supplies they need and when they need them.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Kinsch said of all who have signed up to help the family. The outpouring of prayers and goods proves “just how precious our Church community is,” she added.
St. Joseph’s parishioners have also made a Holy Hour on Molly’s behalf at the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel.
Msgr. William J. Lynn, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, said he is not surprised by the compassionate outpouring his parishioners are providing the Zahners.
“I’m so humbled and edified that they have taken the message that Christ gave us — to reach out to anyone among us who needs our help, especially those who are ill,” he said.
“They see Christ as the center of their lives and cannot help but act Christ-like.”
And while Molly receives medical treatments, her siblings are frequently babysat by their maternal grandparents: Ann Farren and Dan Farren, who is battling Parkinson’s disease, and by their great-aunt, Mary Kerlin, a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Drexel Hill. Additional support is provided by their paternal grandmother, Gerry Zahner, of St. Pius X Parish in Broomall and other family and friends.
Parishioners from St. JoPeph also help babysit and coordinate playdates for the youngsters, and families from St. Kevin Parish delivered several bags of new toys to all six Zahner children. The Farrens have also received prayers and home-cooked dinners from members of their parish, St. Francis of Assisi in Springfield.
When people ask Ann Farren what the Zahner family needs, she simply asks for prayers. “We need Molly well,” she said.
“Faith in action” is how Farren describes the response of Catholics far and wide. “I am just amazed,” she said of “the loving hearts that are filling our pews.”
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
To follow Molly’s progress, visit the Web site www.caringbridge.org, then write “mollyzahner” under the icon “Visit a Caring Bridge Web site.”
For information on how to help the Zahner family, visit the Web site www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/605569/ and follow the prompts.