Stories of hope

“From that point on, my mom never had a doubt. She knew I was in
good hands.”

Matthias Molnar

Having your vibrant, 42-year-old son suddenly in the hospital undergoing treatment for advanced testicular cancer would be enough to make any mother feel beside herself. What made matters even worse for Matthias Molnar’s mother was that she was thousands of miles away, back home in the Black Forest of Germany.

“My sister told me much later that when I was first undergoing treatment, my mother did not leave her home,” Matthias says. “She worried that at any moment there might come a phone call and she would hear that something was happening with me.”

All that changed when Mrs. Molnar made her first visit to the U.S. Matthias's girlfriend, Annie, was there to meet her at the airport. Together, they went directly to Providence Cancer Center, where Matthias was undergoing treatment. Here Mrs. Molnar met Matthias’s oncologist, Craig Nichols, M.D., and Matthias's nurses and other doctors.

“My mother could not understand one word of English, but we picked her up at the airport and immediately brought her to the hospital,” Matthias says. Mrs. Molnar saw a modern, high-tech facility where internationally renowned medical teams are advancing state-of-the-art cancer care. At the same time, here was a place that still felt warm and supportive for patients and their families.

That day she told her son, “You know what? I felt comfortable right away.” Matthias says that “from that point on, she never had a problem — not a moment of doubt. She knew I was in good hands.”