THE CONTRIBUTION OF EVELYN LAUDER, A TRIBUTE

Since I am currently writing about my recent experiences in Central Europe, it feels appropriate and necessary to acknowledge and honor Evelyn Lauder, who was born in Vienna and died this month in Manhattan from complications of non-genetic ovarian cancer. Mrs. Lauder, a well-recognized champion for breast cancer research, was the driving force and constant presence behind the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness begun in 1992. www.pinkribbon.com

For the past 50 years, Mrs. Lauder worked for the cosmetic conglomerate, Estée Lauder, a beauty products giant founded by her mother-in-law. At the time of her death, she was a senior corporate vice president.

But her real story, like so many others I heard while traveling through countries ravaged by War and Occupation, is about a frightened toddler fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna with her parents and few possessions. Her father bartered some household silver for visas which got them to Belgium and, eventually, England.  Authorities sent Mrs. Lauder’s mother, Mimi, to an internment camp on the Isle of Man while daughter Evelyn, separated from her parents, was placed in a nursery.  It took more than two years for her father to raise the money, unite his family, sail to the United States and settle in Manhattan, where they established a successful clothing business.

I have always known these many interesting facets of Mrs. Lauder’s life because she and her husband, Leonard, have been part-time residents of Aspen since we moved there in 1988.  Although I do not know the Lauders personally nor move in their circles, they never met a stranger. The Lauders were friend-makers, generous not only in largesse but in time, effort and spirit. We watched as Mrs. Lauder bravely and quietly fought and conquered breast cancer (1989) and unsuccessfully battled ovarian cancer (2007). While her death was not a surprise nor shock, we Aspenites lost a good neighbor and that always feels very, very sad.

There are many Evelyn-stories being shared and told in Aspen now, but this is my favorite.

My dear Aspen friend, Luky, was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1992.  It was a frightening time for her.  She was only 41 years old at the time and had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. One day, out-of-the-blue, she received a call from Mrs. Lauder, who she did not know nor had ever met.

“Luky, this is Evelyn Lauder,” she was told.  “I understand from our mutual friend, Barbara, that you have been diagnosed with cancer. I want to know if I can help in any way.”

Luky, a gal who’s never at a loss for words, chatted briefly, discussing her illness, voicing her concerns. As the conversation ended, Mrs. Lauder said, “If you need anything, Luky, anything at all, I will help you. Just call me.“

Although Luky chose to have treatment in Louisiana, near her family, and is now very healthy, I have heard her tell that story over and over again. It was the call she desperately needed at a time when she was completely depleted and demoralized. And, during that period of her life, she always carried Evelyn’s “Good-will Card” in her hip pocket. If things go terribly wrong, she thought, I’ll call Evelyn.

It’s ironic, I believe, that I was traveling through Europe in October,  a month recognized internationally as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink ribbons hung everywhere, on jacket lapels, lampposts, at cosmetic counters, even on the Austrian Parliament Building in the city that Ernest, Mimi, and little Evelyn Hauser fled from in 1936.

If you remember, in the early Nineties, women’s health issues and breast cancer research still were plunked on America’s back burner.  In 1992, after waging her own battle with breast cancer, Mrs. Lauder coupled her talents with her friend, Alexandra Penney’s expertise, and Charlotte Hayley’s ribbon idea to develop a campaign for breast cancer awareness.  Starting as a personally-financed  Lauder project, producing pink ribbon bows to be given at department store makeup counters as a breast exam reminder, the campaign rapidly morphed into so much more and has arguably saved thousands of lives. This year I picked up my pink ribbon, a reminder to have my yearly exam, at a cosmetics counter in Budapest.

In an interview with the New York Times, shortly before her death, Mrs. Lauder spoke about the campaign, which took about three years to really give birth. “ When it launched,” she said, “it was so little known that some people thought it symbolized AIDS awareness.There had been no publicity about breast cancer, but a confluence of events — the pink ribbon, the colour, the press, partnering with Elizabeth Hurley, having Estée Lauder as an advertiser in so many magazines and persuading so many of my friends who are health and beauty editors to do stories about breast health — got people talking.”

Today, this campaign has exploded into fundraising projects, the congressional designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the creation of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, funded by  $330 million in donations, $50 million from Estée Lauder and its partners. www.bcrfcure.org

We may have lost Evelyn Lauder but that little Pink Ribbon will endure,  continuing to be a worldwide symbol of women’s breast health.