Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
"I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it."
Mike "Blackie" Blackford paced around in the garage bay of Warsaw Fire Department Station No. 2, talking himself into cutting off the salt-and-pepper locks that curled out from under his baseball cap.
When all was said and done, Blackford's hair co-mingled with that of 14 other firefighters and one emergency medical technician in a show of brotherhood for a fellow firefighter now battling for his life. Afterward, the men walked about laughing at one another and rubbing each others' newly shaved heads, most of them white in contrast to the tanned faces and necks that surround them. WFD Chief Matt Warren even got a kiss atop his dome from Blackford, a 31-year volunteer firefighter, before Blackford took a seat in the makeshift barber chair.
"If it wasn't for Jon, I wouldn't do it," Blackford said. "It's all for Jon."
Jon Evans joined the Warsaw Fire Department on March 1, 1981. He's served in various capacities as a full-time member of the department since that time, but lately he sits at home and does a whole lot of nothing while on short-term disability from the department. He did start the haircut now sported by fellow firefighter Ed Kipker, who began his tour of duty the same day as Evans.
The guys will have shorter hair than him now, because his is growing back, Evans said, as he rubbed the peach fuzz sprouting on his scalp.
Evans underwent the maximum amount of radiation his body can take in a lifetime. He's still taking chemotherapy. He hopes to stall for a little time before the inoperable tumor lodged deep in his brain takes him from this world.
But, in the face of death, Evans isn't thinking about himself. He wants the time to help his wife, Trish, learn more about dealing with her 6-year-old daughter, Alex, who 2-1/2 years ago had half of her brain removed to control seizures that racked her little body. The child whom Evans has helped raise during his marriage to Trish - they'll celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary June 27 - is not his own, but he said watching her is like looking in a mirror.
Evans has no feeling in the limbs on the left side of his body. Alex has no feeling in the limbs on her right. When she gets up to cross a room, she runs into a chair with her right side as her body lists in that direction, Evans said. "I get up to cross a room and I hit the chair with my left side." He also knows that the pain in the numb limbs is greater during blood tests than on the good side. "We always had Alex's blood tests on her right arm ... we didn't know." He added that he loses where his limb is because he can't feel it but, if his numb left hand is laid upon his right arm, he knows where it is. He now knows something that will help Alex.
"We're learning as we go," Evans said of his illness, "much like we learned with Alex as we went.
"The really cool thing is that I feel the Lord has actually given me the chance to know what Alex needs," Evans said. "Now that I'm living it, I can tell Trish what Alex needs. At least I'm in a position where I can tell Trish. It's truly a blessing. Now Trish knows what Alex needs."
Despite living in the same household, the brain afflictions are not related - Evans' is cancer and Alex's a deformity.
Evans' problems began about three months ago after experiencing numbness in his left foot. Evans said he was sanding a hardwood floor as part of a home remodeling project, so the 44-year-old didn't think anything about the tingling when he climbed into bed that night. A week later, he got lost inside his own house. Three weeks from the time his foot went numb, Evans said, his doctor convinced him to go to the hospital for testing - he thought Evans may have suffered a stroke. Unfortunately, the April 16 diagnosis was much worse than that. A stroke would have been welcome over astrosytoma glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, the most common tumor in people over age 40, according to information Trish and Evans have learned from doctors. The tumor currently consumes 25 percent of Evans' brain and is estimated to grow 10 percent per week.
First an ill child. Now her husband. How does Trish Evans cope? "With the Lord, 100 percent," she said. "I have to go on. I have children. I went through this two times. Sometimes I don't want to get out of bed."
But she does get up. In addition to Alex, she has a daughter, Kayla, 12, and she and Evans have a 3-year-old son, Reid. She sees her time with Evans as "way too short. He's such a wonderful, wonderful man. He's sincerely wonderful. He's a godsend ... I was so lucky to have him."
Trish also credits the Warsaw community with her positive outlook.
"I'll never move," Trish said. "Twice they've rallied together around my family. They take care of the people." Trish said a woman recently found out where the family lived and stopped by to tell them that if they need anything at all, she is there to help them. "I didn't even know who this woman was," Trish said, "but she made a point to find out where we live and offer to help us."
In addition to Warren, Blackford and Kipker, seven WFD volunteers - Chad Johnson, Tony Sainer, Scott Cothran, Rich Miotto, Mike Groves, Andy McCreary and Ken Thompson; three full-time WFD firefighters - Brooks Murphy, Kerry Stogsdill and Travis Rowland; two Winona Lake Fire Department firefighters - Dave Yotter and Rich Peterson; and Multi-Township Emergency Medical Service technician Ryan Reed put their heads in the hands of Fiesta Hair Salon stylists. Tammy Nickerson, Sherry Sparkman, Shelly Holden and Shari Hunt volunteered their time and their clippers.
The head shaving was an idea formed by a committee of volunteer firemen who gathered to plan their annual fund-raiser for equipment (the city funds $1,000 per volunteer and the rest is up to them). It was about that time that Evans found out about his tumor and the committee voted instead to hold a benefit for him.
"We decided, 'We're doing this for Jon, we're not doing this for us,'" Thompson said. "He needs it more than we do."
The Brotherhood Benefit Hog Roast is set for 11 a.m. until sold out Saturday at WFD Station No. 1 on Main Street in Warsaw.
The cost is $5 per person for a roast pork sandwich, baked beans, applesauce and chips. Hamburger and hot dog meals will be available, as well as pork sandwiches not as part of a meal.
The three hogs for the roast were donated - one by Rice Farms and two by Donny Ellison. Local businesses donated many other necessities for the meal, including charcoal for the grills.
In addition to the hog roast, there will be a raffle of various donated items, including a mountain bicycle, a telephone and restaurant gift certificates. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5.
There also will be a boot - the traditional receptacle for fire house donations - set out at the fire station.
A Kosciusko County Firemen's Association meeting also took place Thursday, and the Mentone Fire Department challenged fire departments throughout the county to meet or exceed their $500 donation to Evans and help "one of our own."
