With the Boston Red Sox having their best season in years and contending for the playoffs, crowds have been regularly filling Fenway Park to capacity this summer. For one small contingent of these baseball fans, the trips will prove especially meaningful regardless of what transpires on the field.
This rotating group, mostly young children and teens accompanied by their parents, take in the action from a 20-seat luxury box high above the Fenway diamond. Officially called Pavilion Suite B6, the right-field locale is more affectionately known as Erica’s Suite. It honors the memory of Erica Leafquist, an ardent Red Sox rooter who spent a decade in treatment at the Jimmy Fund Clinic for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Three or four new families fill the suite each game, and while they rarely know one another beforehand, they quickly bond over their shared experience: All are dealing with cancer, mostly active patients and their caregivers.
Since 2014, Erica’s Suite has provided a brief respite from the medical challenges these visitors face. There are chicken fingers, pizza, and other kid-friendly foods available on request, delivered by attendants sensitive to the dietary restrictions of cancer patients. Floor-to-ceiling windows can be opened or closed depending on the weather, and there is dedicated space for wheelchair-accessible viewing. An elevator whisks visitors up and down, away from the crowds, which is especially important for immunocompromised patients.
Nearly a dozen years after their daughter passed away at age 14, Erica’s parents Kathy and Eric Leafquist still feel her presence in the suite. Photo collages of her artwork adorn the walls, as well as a biography of her life by her smiling portrait. Attendees can share details of their own cancer journeys by signing a guestbook, which is filled with powerful reflections of thanks.
“Any time we were invited to a game by the Jimmy Fund Clinic while Erica was in treatment, we tried our darndest to get there,” says Kathy Leafquist. “Fenway was such a special place for her, just like it is for these families. We know what they are going through.”
Hooked at a Young Age
Another exciting time in Boston baseball history sparked the creation of Erica’s Suite. In October 2013, Dana-Farber Trustee Phill Gross secured a friend’s private plane to travel to Missouri for Game Three of the World Series between the Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. With extra seats on board, as well as extra tickets he had purchased for the game, Gross wanted to invite a Jimmy Fund Clinic patient and their family to come along.
He reached out to Lisa Scherber, director of Patient and Family Programs. Scherber and the Jimmy Fund Clinic team knew just the person.
“It was a no-brainer,” Scherber says with a laugh. “Erica was a superfan, and an amazing kid from a wonderful family.”
The Leafquists had endured numerous challenges since Erica’s ALL diagnosis in June 2004. That October, as she was readying for a stem cell transplant at Boston Children’s Hospital, they watched the Red Sox’s epic comeback against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series from her bedside. The Sox went on to capture their first World Series title since 1918, and Erica, then five, was hooked.
“It was epic,” remembers Eric. “We’ll never forget it.”
The years that followed brought four cancer relapses, and a second stem cell transplant in 2011. Through it all, the Red Sox — along with Erica’s budding artistic talent — proved a wonderful diversion for the Leafquists. They were delighted when Erica was well enough to use the tickets regularly donated by fans to the Jimmy Fund Clinic, and on a trip with other clinic patients to spring training in Florida she even met her favorite Sox player, outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
Going to St. Louis for a World Series game was, like Scherber said, a no-brainer.
“Erica was at the end of a chemotherapy cycle, so she was feeling good physically,” Kathy recalls. “We got on the plane, and there was a huge bowl of Halloween candy waiting for her. She sat next to Phill, and he showed her the bat that David Ortiz had used to hit a home run in the first game of the World Series. When we landed, there was a limousine there to take us to the game. It was such a beautiful gift to our family.”
Boston won the series, clinching its third world championship since Erica’s diagnosis.
Always a Happy Place
A month later, on Dec. 1, 2013, Erica complained of a sore throat after finishing decorating the family Christmas tree. It was the first sign of a fast-moving pneumonia, and she died on Dec. 7.
When Gross and his wife, Liz, heard the news, they reached out to and visited the Leafquists. Phill began considering how to best honor this brave young girl who had touched his soul. He spoke to Red Sox Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales Will Droste.
“Will suggested a dedicated suite at Fenway for Dana-Farber patients and their families,” explains Gross. “They could even fill it with Erica’s artwork. Liz and I loved the idea.”
So did the Leafquists, and Erica’s Suite has since been available throughout each home season at Fenway. Droste works with Scherber and others at the Institute to arrange for several different patient families to attend each game, and if a patient is not feeling well enough to attend, their loved ones can still come. In some cases, patients facing end-stage disease are given the entire allotment of 20 seats for more privacy.
“It’s hard to visit Erica’s Suite on a game day and not leave with a full heart,” says Droste. “Our mascots Wally and Tessie try to stop by there each game, and David Ortiz has visited too.”
Phill and Liz Gross have covered the cost of Erica’s Suite since its inception. Scherber says the impact has been transformational, because patient families that once worried about inclement weather or large, germ-filled crowds in open-air Fenway seats now know they will be watching games in a safe, warm spot.
“It’s great being with other kids in treatment around my age, and hearing their stories,” explains one teen patient who has enjoyed games in Erica’s Suite. “It’s a place you get to have new friends with similar experiences you can connect with, rather than your school and at-home friends who don’t understand.”
The guest books, signed by families from across New England and beyond, were Liz Gross’ idea. When each is filled, Droste sends it to the Leafquists — who then make laminated copies they share with the Gross family.
“Thank you for a fun-filled day watching the Sox win with some fellow cancer warriors!” one inscription in the suite’s current guestbook reads.
“We hope the Sox knock it out of the park, with our prayers attached for more time and more amazing moments,” states another.
“Reading these books, that’s the spirit right there,” says Kathy. “One time a mom turned to me in the clinic and said, ‘My little boy ate for the first time in three weeks when he went to Erica’s Suite.’ The setup is just so great here for patients, whether they are kids or adults, and Erica is right there with them at every game.”