Mario Devencenzi I was born in 1932 in northern Minnesota, of Italian ancestry. I was the second oldest of eight children in a relatively poor family, so I felt some real responsibility to help my family. My family had no history of cancer.
0-19 years I was an average student in school, but in response to tough financial times in my family, I dropped out of school at age 10 to take a job in the ore mines. I felt good to be able to bring my pay home each week and to be able to hold my own in the rough-and-tumble environment of mines. By age 13, I had started smoking like many of the men I worked with; by age 15, I was up to three packs a day.	20-39 years I continued to work in the mines after I was married. Although my first marriage ended in divorce a few years later, I married again and eventually had six children, one of whom died at age 2 of an infection. I was generally too busy to worry about my health. Besides, most of the time, I felt fine! My primary interests in life were cards, TV, and drinking with the guys.
40-59 years By my mid-40s, I had developed a persistent cough and was starting to feel chronically fatigued or in my words, “to feel my age.” Welcome relief from my normally strenuous work came at age 48, when I was promoted to supervisor. Now I wasn’t in the mines as much, but instead spent most of my time behind a desk. At age 59, I noticed with alarm that there was blood in the stuff I was coughing up out of my lungs. Worried now, I went to the company doctor, who ordered X-rays. X-rays revealed cancer that involved significant portions of both of my lungs and was too advanced for surgery. Eventually, I was too sick to work.	60 + years Although I was too sick to work, I did go to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. My doctor also tried surgery, but I continued to feel worse. Mario died at age 61. He was survived by 5 children and 12 grandchildren.