Dying woman granted wish to 'meet' singer
Friends arrange connection with Bon Jovi via Internet

REBECCA TOWNS / Press & Sun-Bulletin
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By Brian Liberatore
Press & Sun-Bulletin
BINGHAMTON -- Even when overshadowed by crushing tragedy, kindness is not wasted, said Jared Rifenbury.

"It's meant the world to us that people have been so kind and generous to us," said Rifenbury, 29, of Binghamton. His 25-year-old wife, Holli, lay asleep in a hospital bed in the other room of their Franklin Street home. She is in the last stages of terminal cancer.

"Now it's basically the end," Rifenbury said.

An unusual gesture of kindness from Holli's caregivers at Lourdes Hospice put Holli in touch with her favorite musician, Jon Bon Jovi.

At about 11 a.m. Sunday, Bon Jovi spoke to Holli over an Internet connection. Holli was too sick to talk for long with Bon Jovi, her husband of seven years said. But Bon Jovi said he would call this afternoon in hopes that Holli's medication would subdue the pain enough to make a conversation possible.

"It means a lot to us," Jared said. "It brought her sprits up even for just a short time. She had a smile on her face."

Holli had mentioned half-jokingly to her hospice nurse, Cindy Felice-Glowacki, that she'd like meet Bon Jovi. Felice-Glowacki, called her friend Kate Hillis, who works with MTV, to see if a meeting was possible. Hillis called Darren Hagen with Vector Management, who helped make the meeting a reality. Hospice medical social worker Sarah Titman found a computer, and Time Warner officials set up an Internet connection at no cost.

"I've never met a more appreciative person in all the years I've been doing this work," Felice-Glowacki said of Jared Rifenbury.

Rifenbury took an early layoff this month from his job as a carpenter to be with his wife. Since she came home, he has bathed her, fed her and given her medicine. He takes care of the housework and their two boys, Kaleb, 3, and Valek, 6.

"I've got my boys," Rifenbury said. "I have to cope."

The family learned of Holli's illness In October 2005. The diagnosis heralded emergency surgeries, chemotherapy and harsh medication. Soon doctors, hospitals and clinics became routine, Rifenbury said. Through it all, the cancer spread into Holli's spinal chord, paralyzing her from the waist down. Now it's in her lungs. "It's happening quick," he said.

"When we got married, we said in sickness and in health," Rifenbury said. "And we meant it."

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Monica