Extreme gratitude: Boardman family thankful for support from community

The local 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' episode is to air Dec. 4.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Even though there will be one fewer seat at her Thanksgiving dinner table today, Gerry Morley is grateful.
Her daughter Jackie Novak, 29, died of a pulmonary embolism on Mother's Day, and her son-in-law, Jeff Novak, and the couple's three young daughters received an extreme makeover for their Arlene Avenue home last month, courtesy of the ABC television show.
Morley says the outpouring of generosity from the community astounded her.
"I am absolutely amazed at not just all of the help but all the love," she said.
Roughly 2,000 volunteers pitched in to raze the old Novak home and replace it with a new, larger one, complete with amenities. TC Quality Homes of Canfield was the contractor with several other companies throwing in their support with materials, supplies and labor.
"We just want to say thank you," said Jeff Mamula, Morley's boyfriend who knew Jackie from the time she was a young girl.
"And it's not just from us, it's a 'thank you' from the whole extended family," Morley said.
The "Extreme Makeover" episode is expected to air Dec. 4.
Thanksgiving plans
A simple centerpiece of four votive candles surrounded by fall foliage dons the holiday dinner table. Each candle symbolizes one of Morley's four children; Jackie was the baby.
"Jackie loved candles and I love candles," Morley said, explaining that she'll change the foliage to mark each season. "It's nothing fancy."
Morley hosts Thanksgiving each year, preparing an early meal so that each of her children may visit their spouse's families, too, if they choose. As many as 20 people sometimes sit down to the feast.
Today marks the first time Jackie won't be there and the start of the first holiday season without her.
As painful as it is, Morley and Mamula know others endure similar anguish spawned by a loved one lost. The void seems most prominent this time of year.
"Every day when you open up the paper to the obituaries, you see 30 different families that have lost someone," Mamula said. "We aren't the only family this year to have an empty chair at the table."
Morley pointed particularly to those whose loved ones died in the war in Iraq.
"I'm just happy that we've had other family around," she said. "I don't know how I would have gotten through it without family."
Besides Jackie and Jeff and their three daughters, Zoey, 6, Harley, 2, and Presley, 8 months, Morley has three other children: Edgar, who lives in Florida, Suzanne Zupko and Jennifer Amendola, both of Boardman, and their respective families.
Family photographs line the walls in Morley and Mamula's township home, but she can't bring herself to look at the last pictures of Jackie, the ones taken at the hospital after Presley's birth and those shot on Mother's Day.
Touched many lives
Morley finds it difficult to talk about her late daughter without crying.
Nearly every day, she hears about someone whose life Jackie touched.
A couple of weeks ago, her niece was eating dinner with some college-aged acquaintances when one of the women started talking about how she wanted to return to school.
"She was talking about this one teacher who had inspired her and said she wanted to teach chemistry and biology like that teacher had," Morley said.
That Jackson-Milton High School teacher was Jackie.
"She said, 'Mrs. Novak was the best teacher I ever had,'" Morley added.
Jackie graduated in 2001 with a degree in education from Youngstown State University and part of her education was funded by a YSU Foundation scholarship.
YSU and its foundation have formed the Jackie Novak Memorial Scholarship in her memory. The aim is to provide students in need with the opportunity to get a YSU education.
Morley and Mamula say there's been talk in the community of developing some type of network to help other local people whose homes may need improvements. Nothing has been finalized, though.
"We're just working on keeping the spirit going to help other families," Morley said.