He and his wife Rosemarie, have a son, Kyle, and a daughter, Nichole. Later this summer, the Wolkomirs are scheduled to fly to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to attend the 1999 Clarion Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Association of Women in Communications. There they will receive an award for the best feature article of 1998. The Wolkomirs have been writing for the articles for The Smithsonian for the past 25 years, but none has been so challenging as The Quality of Mercy , which appeared in the April 1998 issue. Two years earlier, Joyce had contracted acute myelogenous leukemia.
Most patients die within a year.
The Quality of Mercy , Joyce says, has elicited more letters to the editor than any other piece in The Smithsonian's history. The center will serve stable outpatients, who can receive treatment with a minimal amount of intervention for treatment-related symptoms. There are approximately 80 renal dialysis patients in the Burlington area. Dialysis is a filtering process for the cleansing of blood impurities, drawing off excess fluids and regulating blood chemistry. Individuals on hemodialysis require approximately three four-hour treatments per week.