Deputy Fire Chief Ron Wentzel worked his last shift in the city on Feb. 11.
That's the day he collapsed at work, was taken to the hospital and discovered he had a brain tumor that he's been fighting ever since.
"Come hell or high water, I'm looking forward to coming back," he told a dozen city firefighter recruits on Wednesday during classes at the Berks County Fire Training Site.
"It's been a roller coaster ride," he said of the treatments. "I listen (to the fire radio) all the time. I miss everything."
Wentzel, 49, was the recruits' guest of honor at a fundraiser for his benefit.
Recruit Steve Ginder said they saw the antique hydrants that the Reading Area Firefighters Museum was refurbishing for sale, with half the proceeds going to Wentzel.
When the recruits raised funds to buy one as well, but give it to Wentzel, the museum donated it, and both the hydrant and all the funds went to the chief.
A few weeks ago, the recruits gave towels to the Reading Recreation Commission to be used by kids without them at the Schlegel Park Pool.
Asked why, Ginder, of Richland, Lebanon County, had a simple answer: "Being new, we wanted to step off on the right foot and do what we can to help out."
Wentzel said the hydrant will replace a plastic version on the front lawn of his Spring Township home, where he lives with his wife, Dianne, and son Joshua, 7.
"I cannot say thank you enough," he told the recruits.
He noted that a team of firefighters came to his home one hot day, dug out the concrete in his old sidewalks, then poured new sidewalks.
"Everything's that's being done for me and my family how do I repay it?" he asked.
Somehow, somewhere, he vowed he will.
Wentzel said his doctors tell him he's making progress, and that attitude is 75 percent of the fight against cancer.
He told them: "No is not an option here. Tell me what I have to do to get back to the team."
Wentzel said he's got no ill effects from the chemotherapy, except for his macho bald look.
And he uses a walker to keep from falling, in part because of the original fall, in part because he had contracted double pneumonia.
"They beat me up pretty hard," he said of the doctors.
But he tells them to keep doing what they have to.
Copyright 2012 - Reading Eagle, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
