A Tribute

We all have our heroes; one of mine was Dr. Madeline Crivello.
We met while on vacation in Curacao 35 years ago, when Madeline was still in medical school at Yale. We immediately hit it off and the friendship developed after the vacation, as she and her husband came down for visits and we went to their apartment in Boston and later, to their lovely home in Newton, MA, where she settled. In addition to practicing neuroradiology and diagnostic radiology (and becoming the first radiologist to serve in Mount Auburn's Hoffman Breast Center), Madeline was a Clinical Instructor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School and advised female undergraduates at Harvard interested in becoming doctors. But frankly, any bright and driven woman can do that.
Madeline did the far more difficult task of having and raising two fine children (her daughter is following her mother’s footsteps, studying medicine at Yale after graduating from Harvard), cultivating and keeping a deep pool of utterly devoted friends, and making a warm and welcoming home. A superb cook and baker, she taught me how to make pesto and raspberry jam.
I thought of Madeline today as I made my first batch of pesto of the year, and decided to send her an email because we hadn’t been in contact in about six months. I discovered that the breast cancer she had survived in 1992 had claimed her life.
But along the way, she gave countless women the finest medical care and reassured them that they could fight this disease as she had. A petite woman, she had a giant impact on the world. I am sure she was a hero for many others. She will be sorely missed.