Tasha Dunham’s first day back at work since last January was Dec. 18. It was January when she learned she had Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.

Her first order of business that day was to post a quote on the wall: “I plan on living forever. So far, so good.”

In August, the Wilton 25-year-old had a tumor 4 inches in circumference, as well as one rib and parts of three others, removed from her chest.

Chances of the cancer never appearing again are good, the Wilton resident said: about 80 percent.

She has more treatment ahead, but she’s feeling good. This month she went to a David Bowie concert, and she’s “super-duper excited” to be back working at the Margaret Murphy Center for Children with autism in Auburn. She’s still too frail to work with the kids, however.

This month, she’ll travel to Montana to go to a camp of sorts for 18- to 25-year-olds with cancer. She’s looking forward to talking about the disease with people her own age. When she comes back she’ll start graduate school at the University of Southern Maine. Beyond that, she wants to have kids and a house, and a career in psychology.

“It’s been long. It’s been hard,” she said. “But it will be over soon, and then I can start living my life. Not my cancer life. My real life.”

– Samantha C. DePoy


n Purgatory:

Bones not identified

Eight bodies were left behind in a stone vault at the Purgatory burial grounds in Litchfield more than 100 years ago, then looted over the last five decades.

The cemetery had become overgrown, the graves largely ignored and those unburied bones scattered.

During the past year, that changed. Last summer, one volunteer cleared trees and debris from the grounds, and another restored the ironwork on the broken vault door. The town road crew built a two-vehicle parking area off a private driveway for cemetery parking.

The place is looking better, said George Rogers, a member of the Litchfield Historic Commission who took an early interest in the vault bones. “That cemetery was almost beyond redemption the way it was.”

In the spring, commission members will probe the ground for fallen headstones, Rogers said, and document who is where.

The Purgatory burial grounds were active from 1827 to 1921. Sometime between those dates, one toddler, four children, a woman in her 50s and two men in their 40s were stacked in wooden coffins inside the vault. Why they were never buried and how they died remains a mystery.

Plans now call for putting the remaining bones – so many were stolen that there are only two moving boxes’ worth – into one small coffin, placing the coffin in the vault and sealing it, Rogers said.

That plan will be subject to a vote by the Board of Selectmen, but Town Manager Steve Musica said he likes the idea.

In the months since the bones were discovered, no one has come forward to offer any clues as to who the people in the vault might have been.

Said Musica, “It’s like the tomb of the unknown residents.”

– Kathryn Skelton
n McDuffee’s legacy:

Teaching nonviolence

It has been more than seven months since Brandon Thongsavanh was sentenced to 58 years in prison for the brutal killing of Bates College senior Morgan McDuffee.

As Thongsavanh’s lawyer prepares to argue an appeal before Maine’s highest court, McDuffee’s fiancée tries not to focus on Thongsavanh and the entire legal process.

Instead, Suzanna Andrew invests her time and energy into raising money and awareness about the importance of teaching nonviolence.

After McDuffee died, Andrew worked with the American Red Cross to create a program aimed at teaching nonviolence to elementary, middle and high school students.

One of the first fund-raisers was a road race held in Lewiston last March. Many local people participated in the event, and it raised about $5,000.

Andrew, who lives in Portland, is now planning to do it again this March. She hopes to make the race an annual event.

“It’s rejuvenating to see the support of so many people, especially the many, many people from the Lewiston area,” she said.

McDuffee was killed in March 2002 on Main Street in Lewiston. Witnesses said he was trying to break up a fight between a few college students and a group of locals when Thongsavanh came up and started stabbing him in the chest and back.

Thongsavanh has maintained his innocence, and he has filed an appeal of his murder conviction with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. A hearing on the appeal probably will be in late February or March, according to a court clerk.

– Lisa Chmelecki
n Carley Pomerleau:

Less ‘capsule’ time

In April, 13-year-old Carley Pomerleau called her portable lung a “time capsule” because she spent so much time there.

She’s not spending as much time in it these days.

Now Carley has to sleep in her portable lung only if she gets a cold.

She’s also sitting taller, just made the honor roll and is attending school four days a week.

Carley has myopathy, which causes weak muscles. In Carley’s case, it also brought on scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

She’s adjusted to sleeping with a mask attached to another machine, which pulls the carbon dioxide from her body that she can’t otherwise exhale.

“She’s doing really well,” said her mother, Dianna.

Carley had one cold this season, and she didn’t have to go into the hospital. That’s good news for the Jay seventh-grader.

And back surgery last summer gave her the ability to sit up straighter. Doctors put metal rods in her back to straighten the 50-degree curvature.

Carley still has her positive attitude, her mother said.

“She looks so much more mature; she looks like a young teenager.”

She also appreciates being able to sleep in her own bed, instead of the portable lung.

“I can turn better,” Carley said.

– Donna M. Perry

n Bells: Rebuilding

after house burned

When the Rev. Earl Bell and his wife, Marilyn, move into their new home on Papoose Pond in Waterford, their first purchase will be a dog.

They want a golden retriever to replace Holly, whose barking enabled them to escape their burning home. They scrambled out a window to safety but Holly died in the fire.

The Bells lost everything on July 3.

“The only things we really salvaged were the clothes on our backs,” Earl Bell said after the fire. “The first night we went to sleep after the fire, we hugged each other. We were happy to have each other.”

After 46 years of service, Bell retired from pastoral duties in 1991. Although retired, he still serves as pastor in Bethel and Sweden.

Many parishioners from past and present congregations have aided the Bells. The new home is inching toward completion. He thinks it will be ready by early April.

The Bells lived in their motor home until October, then switched to a winterized cabin. “Papoose camps have been very gracious to us,” Bell said. “Many churches have been kind and taken up a special offering to help with our rebuilding.”

– Jim Smedley

Gerry LaBonte:

Ready to celebrate

For several days in October, loved ones wondered whether Gerry LaBonte would see another new year.

The 43-year-old Durham man suffered shattered bones and internal injuries when the shell of his roof came crashing down on him.

LaBonte crawled to a phone and help arrived at his Stackpole Road home. But at Central Maine Medical Center, there was a shortage of the blood he needed for surgery. LaBonte was kept in a coma for more than a week while medical officials tried to get the right blood for the series of operations he needed.

It was a tense time for his loved ones. Rumors spread that he was not going to make it. Then something unexpected happen.

Media reports about LaBonte’s plight moved people in the community. They donated blood, as well as supplies and manpower to help LaBonte and his fiancee, Karen LaRoche, fix their roof.

In late November, LaBonte was released from the hospital. There is still work to be done on his house, but the project is under way, thanks to droves of volunteers.

Now, more than two months after the roof collapse that nearly killed him, LaBonte and LaRoche are preparing for a holiday season together. But LaBonte hasn’t forgotten his plight. He plans to donate blood of his own, as soon as doctors say he is well enough.

– Mark LaFlamme

Mike Michaud:

First year in Congress

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud expected Congress would be tougher than the State House, but the level of party politics took him by surprise.

When the Democrat was president of the Maine Senate, there were 17 Democrats, 17 Republicans and one independent. They worked together and got things done. It’s not that way in D.C., Michaud said.

It’s more like both parties work to make the other look bad, he said.

“It’s the way Congress operates. It doesn’t serve the public well. It’s frustrating,” Michaud said.

With the Republicans in control of the House, Michaud said he’s seen leadership bend the rules when it serves their interest. Sometimes House Democrats don’t even get invited to conference committees, which are convened when the House and Senate don’t agree. If you’re a Democrat who wants to offer an amendment and you need permission from Republican leadership, good luck.

“Congress is not as open as I’d like to see it,” Michaud said. “Probably I’ve been spoiled by serving 22 years in the Maine Legislature.”

But he has no regrets about going to D.C. “I’m glad I ran, and will be running again.”

– Bonnie Washuk

Flood victims:

Still homeless

It has been nearly four months since the roof of an Oxford Street apartment building collapsed and displaced 19 families.

Eleven of the families are still living at the Chalet Motel in Lewiston, waiting for the building to be repaired. The owners of the building had hoped to have everything done in time for Christmas. But the repairs were more extensive than the landlords had expected.

According to Sue Reny, who manages the low-income Lewiston tenement for S&S Realty Group of Gray, more than 80 percent of the building had to be gutted, and new Sheetrock needs to installed in all of the apartments.

The new plan is to have the 11 families who’ve chosen to wait for the repairs moved back in by Jan. 17. The other eight families have moved to other buildings.

Reny has been meeting with the tenants every few weeks to update them on the progress of the repairs.

The roof collapsed in a rainstorm on Sept. 4, after contractors accidentally allowed concrete to seep into the building’s piping. As a result, the rain backed up onto the roof and caused it to fall.

All 19 families were forced out into the pouring rain in the middle of the night, but no one was injured.

– Lisa Chmelecki

Robinson: Few seek

retraining assistance

Many families in the town of Oxford are still struggling to start over following the closure of Robinson Manufacturing Co., the last woolen textile mill in Maine.

The company announced the closure in July. By the end of November, it had laid off 81 people, said Gerard Dennison of the Maine Department of Labor. A few employees still remained at the 150-year-old company as of mid-December. Exact figures were not available.

Of the 81 people who lost their jobs, only 20 have sought help from the Norway CareerCenter, said Program Manager Jim Trundy.

“That’s not a huge percentage,” he said. Normally, about 60 percent of workers displaced from longtime manufacturing jobs because of foreign competition make some use of the center’s services, he said. It could be that many of the former Robinson workers have found other employment, Trundy said.

“We are in the process of calling everyone (who was laid off) to let them know what the services are,” he said.

Since October 2001, nine companies including Robinson Manufacturing have laid off approximately 400 workers in the greater Oxford Hills region. After the region received a federal Labor Department National Emergency Grant of $339,889, about 139 dislocated workers were expected to apply for help with job placement, counseling and retraining – but many have not applied, Dennison said.

Meanwhile, the local unemployment rate in November had increased to 6.7 percent, up for the third straight month from 5.5 percent in August.

– Gail Geraghty

Matt Graham:

Still no insurance

When he gave up a steady paycheck with a big company to start his own business last February, Christian “Matt” Graham also gave up his health care plan and family coverage.

Graham was one of 500 small business owners who banded together to form a coalition aimed at creating affordable, comprehensive health-care coverage for themselves and their workers. Since then, the Legislature passed Dirigo Health, state-subsidized health care coverage targeted to small businesses. It is scheduled to be launched in July.

Graham said recently that things haven’t changed much.

He and his mother-in-law, Aurora, who works at the Bodega el Coqui on Lisbon Street in Lewiston, are still without health care. His wife, Rosie, is a licensed practical nurse, who picked up a plan through her part-time job at a nursing home.

The Graham’s 1-year-old son Moses is enrolled in Cub Care, a Medicaid program for children. And Rosie is pregnant with another child.

Graham said he plans to apply for Dirigo Health next summer. In the meantime, he said, “I just won’t get sick.”

– Christopher Williams

Charles Soule:

I’ll be back

Lewiston voters may not get a chance to vote on the Bates Mill, but they may be able to vote on Charles Soule, the man pushing to get the mill on the ballot.

Soule said he’ll be back in 2005, running for mayor a fifth time – or possibly putting in a bid for a City Council seat.

His past platforms have included proposals to censor cable television providers and to erect police cameras throughout the city to watch for crime. In the last election, he proposed building a full-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower in Lewiston as a tourist attraction.

Soule lost his bid for mayor for the fourth time in November, picking up 788 votes – about 7 percent of those cast.

After the election, he stayed active in local politics by starting a petition to get the city’s Bates Mill exit strategy before voters. His efforts have stalled at six signatures, the same amount he collected the first day the petition went public. He needs to collect another 994 signatures by Feb. 24.

“I just think that the voters need to decide on this, something this important,” Soule said. “I can think of better ways to spend our money than to spend it on the Bates Mill.”

A legal review of the Soule’s petition by the city attorney determined it was too vague to be legally binding. Even so, officials have allowed Soule to continue to collect signatures until the deadline.

– Scott Taylor

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