By JOSEPH KELLARD
Although this diagnosis delivered a server blow to the Oceanside resident, it has failed to knock out his optimistic spirit. Russell's cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, has a record of sparing virtually no one in its path within a year's time, yet five months after he went in for emergency surgery he exudes a courageous resolve.
"You'll see a smile on my face every day," Russell said a day after the he returned from games 3 and 4 of the World Series in Miami.
In facing the most challenging competition of his life, he now draws in part on his highest and lowest experiences in sports.
Russell was goal keeper for the Bahamas' soccer team that played in the Pan-American Games in the early 1970s, and his pitching helped bring his nation's softball team to the Central America Games and the World Tournament, capturing a bronze in the latter event in 1980.
"On more than one occasion Colyn has come in with the bases loaded and struck out three in the ninth," reads a passage from a speech Elena will give at a fund-raiser for her husband in November. "He's a competitor. And he's a winner."
While remembering his athletic heroics gives him strength, the outstanding injuries Russell has suffered playing sports have also proved invaluable in battling his disease. In 1973, he completely tore up his left knee playing basketball, and two decades later a soaring softball shattered the left side of his face.
"Anything that happens now, it's so easy for me to get through it because of what I've been through," Russell said.
For his greatest source of strength, however, he draws on his faith.
"I believe in God and miracles," he said, wearing a matching sweatshirt with Elena that simply read "Pray." "So, I mean, you'll see a smile on my face every day. God has given me wonderful strength."
His earthly Saviors are the many neuro-oncologists who've diagnosed or treated his disease, and who've helped the Russells face the reality that Colyn is up against the most aggressive and deadly form of brain cancers.
"I understand the statistics about this disease," said Elena, a breast cancer survivor herself, "but there are people every single day that defy the odds in all things in life. And you don't know who it's going to be."
A Lynbrook native, Elena met Colyn while on vacation in the Bahamas in 1977, and the couple tied the knot two years later. For the past 16 years they've resided in Oceanside, where Russell has gradually turned their backyard into a suburban paradise.
Well over a hundred varieties of plants, flowers, and trees -- including ferns, petunias, and weeping red maples -- populate their yard. This flora surrounds three ponds that are home to Japanese coi fish, multi-level decking that bears wrought-iron furniture, and an ornate patio that lends a Key West-like atmosphere.
"It's not a job at all; it's a life," Elena said of her husband's passion for landscape design.
Russell was curator of the Nassau Bahamas Botanical Gardens and oversaw a 60-man crew that landscaped four hotels on Paradise Island before he moved to Oceanside and worked at Dee's Nursery. A year later he started his own company, Island Landscape, and through his outstanding work and personable personality that's earned him the nickname "The Mayor," he's generated a clientele that adores him. So much so that some of them are helping spearhead his fund-raiser to be held the evening of Thursday, Nov. 20 at the Coral House in Baldwin.
"He's a great person who is always willing to help," said Susan Klein, one of Russell's customers and neighbors. "He used to come to my house and plant many extra flowers he had, and he never asked for money or anything. I just love him so much."
The feeling, obviously, is mutual. "I have so many wonderful customers," Russell said, "many of them I just love to death."
The Russells anticipate the fund-raiser will not only help relieve the financial burden of fighting Colyn's disease with aggressive treatments, but continue the crucial emotional support he received immediately after family, friends, customers and even acquaintances learned of his plight. They flooding him with phone calls and letters essentially saying he'd never know how much he means to them, and asked how they could help.
"He has put such a tremendous amount of good and light out into the world, that this is just an opportunity for people to give back and support him," Elena said, fighting back her tears.
"I'm just so happy at how people have treated me," the mild-mannered Russell said. "It's been so wonderful, and a tremendous source of strength."
Ironically, as a testament to his optimistic resolve, Elena finds that even in his present condition her husband serves as a source of strength for others.
"He's been an inspiration to everyone around him," she said, "and everyone who has been overcome with emotion, when they're with Colyn they say that he's going to be the one who is going to help them through this, rather than the other way around."
A fund-raiser for Colyn Russell, sponsored by the Rockville Centre Lions Club, will be held on from 7 to 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20 at the Coral House in Baldwin. Tickets can be purchased by calling Gloria Paesano at 593-1969 or Atlantic Medical at 872-5073. All donations are tax deductible. Checks should be made payable to the Rockville Centre Lions Endowment Fund, Inc. c/o Colyn, P.O. Box 892, Lynbrook, NY 11563.
