NORTH YARMOUTH, Maine — The family of a woman who died last month from breast cancer is raising money to buy her former business and keep her ancestral Falmouth home in the family.
Linda Polkey died Jan. 12 from undiagnosed and untreated cancer. The disease struck quickly, shocking family and friends, according to her niece, Jennifer Noyes.
“I hate that she’s gone and never really knew how many lives that she really touched and made better,” Noyes said Monday. “I have so much frustration that she struggled so in silence, financially and physically, and never asked for help in any way … but continued to give daily of herself and gave words of encouragement to others and us until the very end.”
Faced by competition from the likes of Redbox and Netflix, Polkey last May closed Vacationland Video on Walnut Hill Road, where she employed youths with special needs so they could learn about having a job and allowed cancer patients to rent movies for free, Noyes said.
The $165,000 GoFundMe fundraiser would help pay off and maintain the store property, in addition to paying off debt Polkey incurred while trying to keep the business open, Noyes said. It also would allow the building to become a place for community members to gather, with a bench and vegetable garden added as a memorial to Polkey.
“We’re kind of looking for … a way to keep [the property] sustainable by the community,” Noyes said.
Although the store property attracted an offer from a buyer, “it was so far below property value that we thought we’re just going to try to do this fundraiser and and see what people in the community can put together,” she said.
The funds also would allow Polkey’s Longwoods Road home in Falmouth, which she struggled to afford after her parents died, to remain in the family, Noyes said.
If the effort fails to reach its goal, the family at least would like to install a bench memorial to Polkey, perhaps near the ocean, where she enjoyed sitting, her aunt said.
The fundraising website is gofundme.com/1648vg.