In Memory of Skip Fortuna: Aid for Debbie's Future

The life of Walter “Skip” Fortuna was one of ups and downs, twists and turns, loop after looping loops, but it was a beautiful life. Only in death am I able to finally tell the story of these past five years.

On October 31, 2019, Skip came home from the doctor after having a very stubborn cough that insisted on staying. Nothing he could do could shake it. When he began coughing up blood, his wife of (then) 38 years, Deborah “Debbie” Fortuna, took him to the doctors. They thought they would be returning home with some antibiotics, but instead they returned home with some very troubling news.

Skip was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer and now they had to decide on how to tell their three children.

I remember the chilled numbness which set over my body as the words left their lips. My father, the bravest, toughest, strongest man in the world looked… scared. After a few doctors' appointments, they gave him a 17% chance of irradiation. Unfortunately, things would delay the start of his treatments.

Covid-19 came into full swing in 2020, and his treatments were delayed until the new normal washed its way over the hospitals. Once they began admitting patients and treatments once again, which only took a few weeks to do, more scans found the cancer had spread.

Stage three lung cancer metastasized to his lymph nodes. Immediately, the doctors set up an appointment for surgery. If caught in time, depending on which lymph nodes are infected, they can be operable. Sometimes, though, it is a death sentence.

Fortunately, Skip caught a break and was able to get the cancerous lymph nodes removed. Unfortunately, tragedy struck once again as the cancer once again spread before they were able to remove the affected lymph nodes.

This time, the cancer metastasized to his brain. Skip took it in strides and underwent gamma knife treatment. The entire time, he asked we keep his journey from his friends and family. There were very few who knew what was actually going on. This wasn’t because Skip didn’t trust his friends or family, he just wanted to be treated normally. He didn’t want pity or special treatment. He just wanted to be Skip to everyone.

Throughout his journey, we had a few scares, but even the doctors said he was the healthiest looking sick person they’d seen. Nobody would've guessed he was undergoing cancer treatments just by looking at him. At home, he showed the signs of fatigue from the treatments, but on the outside, he looked like any other health citizen.

Three years after treatment, Skip had his final treatment. He beat his lung cancer, they lymph nodes and brain cancer were all removed, he was on the path of being cancer free!

He almost made it two years of being cancer free. In early 2024, he started having vision problems and went to the doctors once again. His MRI was scheduled and in mid 2024, another brain tumor was discovered. They scheduled the gamma knife once again but were hopeful because this once was much smaller than the last.

Skip underwent his treatment once again and recovered well. Unfortunately, this year, he caught pneumonia 2 times and just couldn’t shake it. When he was feeling better, Skip and Debbie made a trip with their two grandchildren up to Caliente Pizza & Draft House to celebrate. Skip loved Caliente as it had all of his favorite foods and two of his children worked for the company.

After a wonderful dinner full of good food and laughter, that night would change the next month drastically. October 4, 2024, on their way home from dinner, Skip, Debbie, and their two grandchildren were involved in an accident which totaled their Dodge Charger. A group of 4 teenage boys pulled out in front of them crossing two lanes of traffic. There wasn’t enough time to react as the boys attempted to race across the oncoming traffic.

Debbie ended up suffering from severe bruising, seatbelt burns, and a broken wrist. Skip hit his head and has some bruising. And the two grandchildren suffered only from some bruising and a small cut. Unfortunately, this would be the last time Skip felt himself.

Over the next two weeks, Skip became sick with pneumonia once again. His vision began to waver, and he called his doctor. The MRI was scheduled and then postponed because of the pneumonia, which landed him back in the hospital.

Once he recovered from pneumonia, Skip was sent home to be on oxygen full time. Three days before his death, Skip’s vision started to waver once again. His MRI was scheduled, but he never called the doctor to let them know it was getting worse. Please, if you are reading this, and you find anything out of the normal, call your doctor.

On November 4, 2024, Skip woke with a thumping headache behind his right eye. He went into the kitchen, where Debbie sat, and attempted to grab the Tylenol. As he searched for the acetaminophen, he asked her where it was. She directed him as the Costco sized bottle was directly in front of him. He became frustrated as he couldn’t see it and as Debbie went to help him, he knocked it on the floor.

Almost immediately afterwards, he began to vomit. He sat down at the table when he was blessed with a break in involuntary evacuation of his stomach content. Debbie, a registered nurse, tried talking to him and asking him questions to find out more about how he was feeling and what next steps would be needed. He was answering her but within minutes, he slumped over and became unresponsive.

Debbie called an ambulance, and he was rushed to Sewickley hospital where they found a significant brain bleed. He was then rushed to Allegheny General Hospital so their team of neurosurgeons could evaluate the situation further.

Once they were able to evaluate the situation, the Fortuna family was faced with a serious, yet grave, decision. Due to the intense bleeding in his brain, the pressure against his brain had rendered him unresponsive even to pain receptors on one side. Should they decide to go through surgery to stop the bleeding, most likely Skip would never walk or talk again, he’d never be able to feed himself, and it was even probable he would need a ventilator to help him breathe.

Skip always made it known to his family that he never wanted to “live” like that. The family opted out of the surgery and doctors informed them the bleed may stop on its own. The family decided to give him time to see what would happen.

Early morning of November 5, 2024, Debbie received the call no spouse wants to receive. Skip had taken a turn for the worse. Collecting her children, they headed down to say their final goodbyes to their mountainous protector.

Skip passed around 2:30pm on November 5, 2024. One month after the car accident.

I write this to tell Skip’s story over the past 5 years of his cancer battle. I feel his death finally relinquished me of the promise I made him not to say anything to anyone about his struggles and fight. He wanted to do it alone, he wanted to protect us from everything bad, but we didn’t let him fight alone.

Now I want you to know the cost it took on the family and ask if you could potentially help out. Some of you may know that cancer treatment is very expensive. And over the past 5 years, it has eaten up my parent’s savings. My mother is now left with cancer treatment bills (including a $7,000 gamma knife treatment) and no savings to fall back on. She had a very small life insurance policy on my father through her work. My father did not have a 401k, a pension, and was on disability these last few years due to the brain tumor which caused unpredictable seizures.

Skip is survived by loving wife of 43 years, Debbie, his oldest daughter, Kristina, his youngest daughter, Brittany, and his youngest child, Tyler. He also leaves behind two grandchildren, Braydon (8) and Ariella (4).

Skip also departed before many wonderful friends, family, and loved ones. There are too many to list as this will take up an additional 13 pages. Please know he loved you all.

Skip was a man who extended a hand to anyone in need. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, he was there to offer help. He would come home and tell his stories when he used to pick up dumpsters while working downtown where he’d take a homeless person into the store during the winter and buy them new shoes and a warm jacket.

He always had a map of the entire United States in his mind so if anyone called him saying they were lost, they’d give him landmarks of a KFC and a giant Oak tree with a branch resembling Demi Moore’s face in Ghost, and he’d tell them they would need to go past two stoplights, make a right, and at the next roundabout, take the third exit and they would need to follow that single road home. Amazingly, he was correct every time.

Skip adopted many of our friends growing up and became the father figure they may not have had in their life. He recently told me that when him and mom got married, he never wanted kids. Dad was the oldest of his siblings and always helped his parents in raising his brothers and sister. But as an adult, he didn’t want kids.

He went on to have four biological children in life, but he was a father to many more kids. If your father was no longer around, Skip became your dad. If you and your father were fighting or not seeing eye to eye, Skip stepped up. If you and your father had a wonderful relationship, but you were open to having another strong man in your life, Skip stepped up to the plate.

Skip’s friendship and humor knew no bounds. Nobody was safe from the quick whips of his tongue as he joked. He was very quick on his feet and enjoyed little intellectual jousts. He made friends everywhere we went ad quickly got the nickname of “the damn mayor” since we always ran into someone he knew when we went out.

This even happened when we travelled for vacation to different state. Skip made lifelong friends across the country and helped them even though he was hundreds or thousands of miles away. He helped others through their cancer journeys. He helped them through their darkness, their addictions, and their marriage troubles.

While Dad slipped from us during our final goodbyes, we promised we would take care of each other. We were losing our protector but gaining an angel to watch over us.

I’m asking for some help with Mom as she now navigates this world without her soulmate. They married in 1981 at the age of 20 and 18. If you knew them, they never went anywhere without the other one. If you saw one, you knew the other wasn’t far behind.

With his line of work, Dad never had any type of retirement funding. And now in death, Mom is left with a lot of medical bills and debt due to treatments over these last 5 years. She is currently not working due to her recovery needed after the accident. Additionally, the cost of death is increasing to the point it's just as expensive to die as it is to live. Funeral and memorial costs are astronomical, and with his progress showing in the positive outlook before the crash, it wasn't on our minds. Our parents are supposed to live forever, aren't they?

If possible, and I understand how difficult life is, could you please help out in any way you can? If you cannot donate, sharing this will be helpful, too.

Skip loved his life and all those in it. He will be deeply missed and the hole that he left can never be completely filled. If you were blessed enough to know my father, you will know he was certainly larger than life.

And now he will be pain-free, cancer-free, and rest in eternal peace. We love you, Dad.