CLUB FOR MOMS GIVING TLC TO FAMILY IN SIMI : WOMEN COOK, RAISE MONEY FOR CANCER PATIENT.

Byline: Christoper Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

It wasn't a migraine, the internist told Ajay Hill. And it wasn't a sinus infection. The source of his pain was a tumor, a little bigger than a golf ball, inside the right frontal lobe of his brain.

The 39-year-old carpenter should be admitted to the hospital immediately. Brain surgery and radiation therapy would follow, doctors said.

Hill and his wife Mary were stunned. They had moved from Santa Barbara a year before and bought a two-story tract home. Mary stayed with their new daughter, Andrea, while Ajay went to work, building cabinets and shelves and other finish work, mostly in malls.

Then the headaches started. They were so bad he couldn't see or move or hold food down. Doctors didn't know what it was right away. The news was devastating.

``I called the only phone number I could think of at that point,'' Mary recalls. ``I called one of the moms I knew from the Moms Club.''

Mary had joined the group of about 60 mothers soon after moving to Simi Valley. She didn't know anyone in the area and quickly fell in with neighborhood women as they organized play groups, hosted pool parties and ice cream socials.

But the group became much more than a social club for the Hills.

Over the past two months, women in the group have delivered meals, looked after Andrea, collected groceries and arranged to have the lawn mowed. The group plans to hold a fund-raiser in September to collect money for utility bills and other household expenses.

Ajay calls their help a ``godsend.'' With few nearby relatives, the Moms Club became their major source of support.

The family has never needed the support more. Hill had surgery May 29. After shaving off his straight blond hair, doctors made a crescent-shaped incision and removed as much of the tumor as they could find. Two weeks later, they began an aggressive course of radiation treatment.

Hill is undergoing twice-a-day treatments.

Every weeknight during the treatment, one of the moms brings over a meal for the family. One night it's casserole, another night chicken. When her turn came, Vicky Zollman delivered noodles, spaghetti sauce, a loaf of bread and a bottle of sparkling cider.

There was never any question about whether or not to help, Zollman says.

``She's one of us,'' she said. ``If a member needs something, we all get together and they get it.''

This isn't the first time the group has rallied around a mother in need.

Since it began in Simi Valley in 1983, the Moms Club has provided assistance to families in all kinds of trouble, says founder Mary James.

A group in Tennessee has donated child care, food and support to a father whose wife died in childbirth. Members of a Washington chapter gave gas money to a mother whose child was undergoing chemotherapy.

After the Northridge Earthquake, members from the 326 chapters across the country began sending care packages to help families rebuild their lives. One day the packages just started arriving, packages containing blankets, dishes, space heaters, money.

That kind of help is not the official purpose of the group, says James. But it grows out of the bond that develops among mothers.

``You get to know the other women and they become your friends,'' she says. ``It's a natural part of the program, but it's not a mandated part.''

For now, the help has made a big difference, says Mary Hill. It has demonstrated something about community she says she never experienced before.

``If we had still been in Santa Barbara, we never would have had anywhere near this kind of support,'' she said. ``I never would have imagined the help would have extended this far. There was a reason we moved to Simi Valley. We just didn't know it at the time.''

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Photo

Photo: (color) Ajay Hill plays with 20-month-old daughter A ndrea at home. His wife, Mary, is in the background.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News