Holding out hope for a last holiday

It is well past when Carmine DeVito’s doctors said he would die from the cancer he was diagnosed with in June. The 58-year-old sat in his modest second-story apartment on Stephen Place as his daughter fixed him a bowl of Cream of Wheat.

“Just waiting,” Carmine said.

His daughter, Michelle, gestured toward the string of Christmas lights she hung over his windows across the room. “You like his lights? I hung ‘em yesterday,” she said. “We’re hoping to make it past the holiday.”

Carmine sat on the edge of his bed in a white bathrobe, hunched forward and resting his hands on his cane. He can still get around, including showering, though he said he’s in pain most of the time. He’s on medication for it, which can “make him loopy,” Michelle said.

“Get outta here,” Carmine grumbled. He looked at her with a wry smile. “You’re gonna make him think I’m crazy.”

“He’s fine enough to talk nasty sometimes,” Michelle said.

The sparsely decorated room is clean. Pants hang neatly from their hangers in a closet. Carmine’s drum set sits at one end. He started playing when he was 8, and played local gigs with his band through the years. One section of wall is adorned by a Government Mule poster, the Southern blues and rock jam band formed by members of the Allman Brothers.

“The Allman Brothers were my guys,” Carmine said. “I used to go backstage with them.”

He has been mostly confined to his apartment since he was released from the hospital several months ago, where he was recovering from a fall that broke his hip. Carmine was hospitalized for the summer. As the disease continues to break his body down, he dreads the idea of going back there.

Arrears payments to his ex-wife — he isn’t clear about what they are related to; they divorced 27 years ago — leaves Carmine with disability payments that amount to less than $200 per week. He used to be a driver for an airport service, and he feels the absence of his work routine at least as much as that of his income. “I’m bored,” Carmine said. “I’d rather be at work.”