PROFILE
“Why me? Why not me?” A cancer survivor’s perspective of gratitude serves as a beacon of light for herself and others By Libby Herz Everyone needs a Judy Katz Esbit as a friend. Judy, a doting wife and mother, has a magnetic personality with energy that electrifies everyone she interacts with. It is hard to feel despondent in her presence. Though Judy embodies thankfulness and joy, life has at times tossed her several curveballs. Displacing self-pity with gratitude, she has managed to turn painful hours into cocktail affairs. Born and bred in Rockland County, Judy was raised as a conservative Jew. Her family was involved in community activities cementing Judaism into her life. When Judy’s family moved to California, they joined the Jewish community there and lived a fulfilling life. Judy started out as an event marketer and then became the owner of a health food store. “I like to call meeting my husband a shidduch,” Judy chuckles, using the Yiddish word for matchmaking. While Judy was spending some time in Israel, her parents in California met the president of their congregation who later introduced Judy to Scott-- her future husband. The couple married on March 29, 1992. In 1992, Judy’s mother was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. Judy learned at that point that, in her words, “A cancer patient’s story affects the entire family and village; not only the patient.”
4
After giving birth to two sons, in 1996 and 2000, Judy and her husband were ready to move out of California and picked North Tucson for their next family home. Judy reached out to the Jewish community before they relocated, and by 2006, when Judy and her family moved
Scott Esbit, Simon Esbit (in the body brace), Judy Katz Esbit, Brandon Esbit and their dog Moose are enjoying their panoramic view from the backyard of their new “forever home on the hill.”
here, she was already deeply committed and engaged. Her sons were in school, she and her husband had jobs, and during
the rest of her time, she was “a human connector, giving as much as she could to the community and others.”
Then, on November 23, 2009, only two short weeks after celebrating the joy of their eldest son Simon’s Bar
