Dekanich offers hope amid adversity with ‘Frame of Mind’
Through the years, though, this Baldwin Park subdivision resident has discovered the wisdom that helped him persevere — sharing that wisdom with others through his recently released book, “Frame of Mind,” to help others overcome their struggles.
“The first time the cancer hit, I was 18 years old,” recalled Dekanich, who had just graduated from high school in 1969, about his beginning battle with throat, thyroid and parathyroid cancer.
During the last 50-plus years he has endured 19 reoccurrences, the loss of his first wife, Linda, to leukemia in 2008, undergone open-heart surgery, had an abscess on his liver, a diverticular bleed from his colon, total knee replacement, torn retinas, a pacemaker implant — and, most recently, a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, which is a cancer that forms in a type of white plasma blood cell.
Career-wise, his company of employment closed shortly after he left a promising career with another company.
On a positive note, however, Dekanich realized his dream of working as an engineer at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, and later met and married his current wife, Allie, in 2010.
And his cancer currently is in remission. “It was easy to go into a downward spiral,” he recalled. “The longer I felt like that, the worse I felt.”
However, “I realized, as long as I concentrated on good thoughts and reached out to other people … that’s the main reason for the book,” Dekanich said. “The cancer, along with other health and life challenges, provided me with a base to empathize with a lot of people’s situations,” he added.
Using Dekanich’s knowledge base — and after 40 years of writing, procrastinating and rewriting — “Frame of Mind” recently was published.
It would not have been completed without Allie, Dekanich laughed and said: “She kind of gave me an attitude adjustment. Because of her, the book became a reality, not just a file on my computer.”
He explained the book is a semi-autographical novel in which he created the character, Joey Slunisky, who contends with issues that impacted Dekanich throughout his life.
“The basic thing behind (the book) is you really can’t control the things that happen to you, but can control how you respond, and that response, whether its positive or negative, determines whether you live in heaven or hell here on Earth,” added Dekanich, a Pennsylvania native who has a nuclear metallurgical engineering background. The couple moved to Town in August.
The book is available by calling Dekanich at 865-228-2488 or e-mailing him at hello@stevedekanich.com
