Mailen’s breast cancer came back the year she finally stopped feeling alone.
In this edition of Stories from the Circle, meet Mailen. When she moved from Cuba she spoke only Spanish and knew no one but her daughter. She was managing diabetes and trying to eat healthier, and most days she felt alone. At Wider Circle, she found neighbors who gave her rides and cooked healthy meals alongside her, and who kept showing up with hope through chemotherapy.
Today, as a Wider Circle Ambassador, she’s working to “bring that same hope to my neighbors.”
Mailen M.
“A Community When I Had No One Else”: How Mailen Found Her Circle in a New Country
Far from Cuba and facing cancer a second time, Mailen leaned on the friends she made through Wider Circle.
When Mailen moved from Cuba to Allentown, Pennsylvania, she knew no one but her daughter. She spoke only Spanish, had no car, and wasn’t sure where to meet people. She had already been through breast cancer once, and she was managing diabetes, trying to eat healthier and stay active, with no one nearby to join her. “I felt completely alone,” she said.
She arrived at her first Wider Circle event quiet, and unsure whether anyone there would speak Spanish. Then she met a group of neighbors from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic who shared her language and culture. They started giving her rides, and before long they were showing her free events around Allentown she had never known existed. Her new community, Mailen said, helped her with “meeting new people and not feeling alone.”
At diner meetups, members traded news about local food giveaways and community festivals, then made plans to go together. Often at events, the Wider Circle community would discuss preventive care. Mailen said those conversations helped her “pay attention to my needs.”
Together, Mailen and her friends went to local food drives, where Elizabeth Fedison, her Wider Circle Community Engagement Specialist, helped her find fresh, diabetes-friendly produce. Mailen wanted to learn how to cook with it, so the group began hosting cooking events of their own, making healthy versions of the Caribbean and Latin dishes they grew up with. For the first time in a while, eating well didn’t feel like something she had to figure out alone.
Less than a year after joining Wider Circle, Mailen learned her breast cancer had returned. She began chemotherapy again, but this time, she had a community behind her. She kept coming to nearly every event, with the same women still driving her there. When she missed a food drive, Elizabeth brought fresh, healthy food right to her door. With her community’s support, Mailen has kept her focus on eating well, which she says helps “keep me healthy through chemo.”
Looking back on her time at Wider Circle, Mailen says, “Wider Circle gave me a community when I had no one else.”
Mailen wanted to give back to the community that had given her so much. So she went to Elizabeth and asked how she could help.
She became an ambassador and is now one of her community’s most active leaders, helping plan and run events. Mailen arrives 20 minutes early, works the check-in line, greets members by name, and stays an hour after it ends.
When newcomers arrive and ask what Wider Circle is, she’s often the one who answers, sharing her own story so they know what they’ve joined. She has also recruited several neighbors from her building. “Being an ambassador lets me bring that same hope to my neighbors,” Mailen said.
Her daughter now joins her at Wider Circle events, and at home the two cook the healthy meals Mailen learned alongside her friends. When she’s with her community, “it feels like family,” says Elizabeth.
Not long ago, Mailen didn’t know a soul in Allentown. Today, she’s the one making sure no one else feels that way.
Thank you, Mailen, for sharing your journey and reminding us of the strength found in community. And thank you to our sponsors for helping make stories like Mailen’s possible every day.
Stories from the Circle Sign Up
About the author: Jamie Zale
Wider Circle
