Overwhelming Outpouring of Community Support Brings Sister, Mother to Tears

By Paul Sylvain

For the second time in her young life, Jennifer Green Feeney of Cutler is in a fight for her life against cancer.

And hundreds of people — friends, family, even those who peripherally knew her — packed the Rose M. Gaffney School gymnasium in Machias on Aug. 3 for a benefit supper and Chinese auction on Jen's behalf in what can only be described as a massive outpouring of community support, love, and hope. 

The turnout brought older sister Jessica Green Taylor, and mother, Loraine Wood Davis, to tears as they thanked — and continued to thank in the days since — everyone for coming out in such an overwhelming show of support for Jen, who has strong ties to Machiasport, Cutler, and Washington Academy in East Machias.

Many readers already know about my 51-year friendship with Jen’s father, Dave Green. It’s impossible for me not to write parts of this in the first person, so I am setting aside my book of unwritten journalism rules to share parts of this deeply personal story.

I’ve known Jen and Jess since they were born. They went to Washington Academy with my two sons, and as Raiders cheerleaders, they wowed the team's fans with their high-flying routines. 

Older sister Jessica Green Taylor, began organizing the benefit for Jen shortly after learning of her sister’s diagnosis. Jen, who was most recently employed by AOS 96 as the receptionist at Fort O’Brien School in Machiasport, had beaten breast cancer several years earlier. I know as a substitute teacher at FOB this past school year how much the students there love “Miss Jen.”  And she was equally loved by the staff there as well.

Wendell “Doss” Dennison, who teaches history and social studies there, choked up as he shared Jen’s diagnosis and called for prayers for Jen one Sunday during a service at Machiasport Congregational Church, where he is a co-pastor. As Jess told the crowd gathered at the benefit, Jen, who is undergoing aggressive chemotherapy, is unable to return to her job at FOB next month.

The benefit took on an even more emotional significance when Jess and Jen’s father, Dave Green, lost a seven-year battle with cancer himself on Aug. 1, passing away from complications resulting in pneumonia, in a Florida hospital. Jen was undergoing chemotherapy treatment when her father passed.

“I still can’t believe he’s gone,” Jess told me at the benefit. His first wife, Loraine tearfully told me the same thing, while hugging me at the benefit. I learned that Jess and Jen saw their dad for the last time at River’s Edge Take Out in Machias on July 24, the night before Dave and  second wife Janet flew back to Florida.

Both Jess and her mother said Jen is very weak from the chemotherapy she recently began receiving. As Jess explained, Jen was unable to attend the benefit because she is so weak and tired but also out of concerns about being around so many people while having a chemo-compromised, weakened immune system.

Jess told the audience she came up with the idea of holding a benefit supper. After thinking on it for a couple of days, Jen agreed to it. However nobody, including the Green girls and their mother, ever anticipated the massive response they received after Jess announced plans for the benefit on Facebook.

The event was originally going to take place at Bay Ridge School in Cutler, but within two days of the event being posted online, it quickly became apparent to Jess that a much larger venue was needed. The benefit supper was moved from Bay Ridge to the much larger gym at Rose M. Gaffney School.

The school’s doors were opened at noon so people could drop off items or purchase tickets for the Chinese Auction and various raffles taking place as part of the benefit. I volunteered to play and sing two hours of acoustic music from 3 to 5 p.m. (and, yes, I felt Dave’s spirit was playing along with me). The spaghetti supper kicked off at 5 p.m.

As Jess was inviting people to come up to be served the spaghetti supper, she began crying saying she never expected to see so many people show up for the benefit. She told me by email the next morning that 148 items were donated for the auction. “It was a lot,” Jess said. “People had said it was the most they had seen at a [benefit] supper.” The auction itself lasted until after 8 p.m. because of the sheet number of items auctioned off.

“I asked Jen if she’d like to write something for me to read at the supper,” Jess told the crowd. “She told me, ‘I suck at words.’ But you can tell everyone to please keep praying for me.”

Jen and Jess’s father, Dave and I first met in March 1973 and unknowingly forged what would be a lifetime friendship — a brothership, really — spanning more than 51 years, while stationed with the Air Force at the former radar site at Bucks Harbor. Within a month of meeting there, we formed a band called ARGO and played together off and on for more than 30 years. 

Dave married Jess and Jen’s mother, now Loraine Wood Davis, while I was still stationed with him at Bucks Harbor. Loraine and my wife were school friends, as well. I remember both Jess and Jen being born while Dave and Loraine lived in Machiasport. To say Dave and I were brothers, musically or otherwise, is an understatement. And my wife and Loraine, who later remarried, remain special friends to this day, as well. These kinds of relationships truly go beyond friendships.

I was fortunate to see Dave one last time just three weeks ago, while he was visiting from Florida with his current wife, Janet. We spent three hours alone outdoors, sitting on a deck on the Kennebec Road in Machiasport, talking about guitars and music and reliving our glory days. We planned to get together the next week and jam on some of our old songs, but our schedules didn’t quite work out. 

While sitting on that deck, Dave shared a conversation with me that he had with Jen the week before. “We just stood there and hugged and cried together,” he said, “and I told her not to be scared or give up. People have asked me if I was ever scared when I went in for surgery, and I tell them no. And it’s true. I never feared my cancer, and I told her to look it in the eye and fight hard.” 

Dave knew what it was like to battle this disease. In 2017, he went in for what was expected to be a simple surgery to remove what appeared to be a small, localized tumor. When they opened him up, they found an inoperable tumor wrapped around his heart and immediately closed him up.

Dave said they hit him with radiation and heavy-duty chemotherapy. Amazingly the tumor shrunk and, miraculously, disappeared. In the years since, a few suspicious spots popped up but were removed by freezing them. His last positron tomography, or PET, scan, done shortly before his visit in July, was clear, he said.

“I want to thank everyone who came out to support my daughter, Jen,” Loraine Wood Davis wrote on Aug. 4. “It was amazing. Special thank you to my other daughter Jess…and all the other people that helped to make it such a success. We live in an awesome community.”

“Oh, Loraine Wood Davis, what a beautiful get together for Jen put on by Jess and so many others,” Marlene Sue Gatcomb-Wood, wrote in response. “Great family and friends sure showed up in a strong, supportive way. It shows what an impact you all have on this beautiful community.”

If I’ve learned nothing else over these many decades, the Greens are fighters, not quitters. And I know that in spite of the pain of so recently losing her father, Jen Green Feeney — like her father — will not back down in her fight against this cancer.

Anyone wishing to donate to support Jen’s travel and other expenses resulting from her cancer treatments can do so through Venmo by going to @JenFeeney.

Nobody counted, but this is only a part of a crowd estimated at well over 200 that packed the Rose M. Gaffney School gymnasium in Machias for a benefit supper on Aug. 3 on behalf of Jennifer Green Feeney, who is battling bone cancer. Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain.

Spaghetti and meat sauce or meatballs, along with all the fixings topped the menu at the Aug. 3 benefit supper for Jennifer Green Feeney, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain.

Some of the 148 items on display at the Rose M. Gaffney School gym that were donated for the Chinese auction held as part of the Aug. 3 benefit supper for Jen Green Feeney. Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain.

Yours truly performing a two-hour set at Jen Green Feeney’s benefit supper at Rose M. Gaffney School in Machias on Aug.3. I first met and played in a band with Jen’s and Jess Green Taylor’s father, Dave Green, in 1973. Sadly, Dave passed away on Aug. 1, two days before this benefit. Photo courtesy Patrick Sylvain.