Woman of The Year candidate, Linora Gula has a very personal connection to lymphoma having seen her father, Frank Stevens, die literally hours after she was married. Born in Newark, New Jersey before moving to Hillside and then Flemington, NJ, Linora attended Centenary College in Hackettstown. Now a resident of the Lehigh Valley in PA, Linora is well known in the local business community as an Enterprise Account Executive for RCN Business telecommunications, a career she embarked on after two decades in the pharmaceutical industry with such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers, and Amylin. Married for 32 years Linora and husband Joseph have two grown children Nicole, 27 and Peter, 25.

Linora's father Frank's life and painful early death has fueled Linora's decision to run for Woman of The Year. "He was diagnosed in August 1981 and passed away on June 5th 1982," she says still emotional at the memory. It's understandable considering the valiant effort her dad put up in fighting the disease, determined to see his daughter wed before he allowed the disease to claim him.

"We were at a family reunion and everyone was noticing that his stomach was distended," says Linora. "When we finally convinced him to go to a doctor he was told that he had lymphoma and he was admitted into the hospital to start treatment immediately. He developed double vision as a side effect of the treatment. As a result he had to end his career with a federal auctioneer and also had to stop working on the fifty acre horse farm he maintained when he became paralyzed from the waist down. For someone like my dad who enjoyed working it was crushing."

Her father's dramatic decline coincided with her plans to marry and she justifiably planned to postpone the wedding, but her father insisted she move forward with her plans for her wedding. Linora had her reservations.

"On the 26th of May he was rushed into the hospital and they couldn't find a pulse. As they were trying to locate his pulse, he actually sat up in the bed and said, 'How did I get here?!' He amazed everyone and started to come back and get stronger and with his blessing we proceeded to go ahead with the wedding. He got a day pass to leave the hospital and as a result was able to accompany Linora down the aisle in his wheelchair."

After asking for reassurance from his daughter that she had made the right decision her father, Frank, returned back to the hospital the night of the wedding and underwent dramatic downturn in his condition.

"That Friday night he was in so much pain," says Linora wiping away her tears. "I just prayed that the Lord would take him and put an end to his suffering. The following morning I got a call to come to the hospital and he passed soon after I got there."

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