Sabattus resident faces cancer – again
SABATTUS – Walter Stevens Sr.’s blue eyes burn with life.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said on a recent day. But on many other days Stevens hasn’t been feeling so well because he’s undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer.
“Boy, I get sick,” he said. “If it works, that’s all I care about.”
The 58-year old Stevens had to stop work at the Sabattus Transfer Station when he got sick. “I loved working there,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. The guys I worked with, they were awesome.”
Now, though, Stevens and his wife, Debbie, are having trouble making ends meet due to a flood of medical bills.
So the town is rallying around Stevens and his family. On Friday, July 25, a benefit dinner will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the American Legion on Island Road.
“He’s a super nice guy,” said Town Clerk Katie Doble, who organized the dinner. “Every single penny’s going to go to him.”
Organizers are asking for a minimum donation of $5 at the door.
“I don’t have the words for it,” Stevens said, expressing his thanks to Doble and the town for all they’ve done.
Stevens said he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1998. It got in his fluids. Now it has attacked his lungs. He has two tumors on his right lung. Sometimes the chemotherapy gets to him.
“I get pretty depressed,” he said. But the affable Stevens is not a quitter. “I’ve got a strong wife,” he said. They have been married five years.
“This is my home,” Stevens said. “I love it.”
He said that if he passes away, he wants to be at home beside his wife. “You will be here,” Debbie replied, sitting nearby.
“I hope and pray,” the spiritual Stevens answered.
“I don’t want to lose my wife,” Stevens said, alluding to death, which may take him away from her. “I worry about my family. God willing, I’ll make it.”
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