Bartlett man creates pink birdhouses in memory of wife taken by cancer

Sam Canzolino spends hours each day in his garage, building wooden birdhouses and painting them bright pink.

"This is my life," the 89-year-old Bartlett man says simply. "This is how I'm going to spend the rest of my days.

"Before I go, I want to hear a phone call that they beat this thing."

"This thing" is breast cancer, which claimed his wife of 67 years, the love of his life and the anchor of their close-knit Italian-American family.

The 30 family members and friends who participate in her honor each year in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life at Elk Grove High School call themselves "Ursula's Angels."

"Not a day goes by that we don't think of her," said her granddaughter, Lisa Malchiodi of Elgin.

For Canzolino, not an hour goes by.

"That's our girl," he says fondly, as he walks past one of the many photographs of his smiling wife.

A neighbor donates the wood for the birdhouses, already cut and mitered. Other retirees from the cul-de-sac - "my Medicare friends," Canzolino calls them - stop by to shoot the breeze while he works.

Sometimes neighbors and friends of neighbors will pick up a birdhouse and leave a donation - $5, $10, $20 - but most of the birdhouses stacked neatly on shelves and tables are headed for the Relay event.

"Everybody just loves them, and I enjoy making them," Canzolino said. "I feel it's therapy for me.

"I just hope people will benefit by it, that cancer is cured."

Canzolino also makes crosses from clothespins, more than 500 so far. He lacquers them and attaches pink ribbons in honor of both his late wife and a daughter who is a breast cancer survivor.

Over the past two years, Ursula's Angels have raised $6,000 to fight breast cancer. The team's goal for the 2010 Relay For Life is to raise another $6,000.

To see the team pages, visit main.acsevents.org/goto/ursulasangels or main.acsevents.org/goto/lisamalchiodi. To find out how to donate or to obtain a birdhouse or cross, e-mail UrsulasAngels@yahoo.com.

"I'm going to keep doing it (building birdhouses to combat cancer) until I leave this earth," Canzolino said. "I just hope people will remember that somebody cared."