When the mother of one of Deborah Freeman’s young patients mentioned that her daughter wasn’t walking at 4 years of age, Freeman knew just what to do.
She referred the woman to Maine Handicapped Skiing and got the organization to waive its minimum age requirement of 6 for the girl, who had cerebral palsy. Soon, the girl was skiing up a storm, and would go on to compete in skiing at Mount Abram High School in Strong and become a teacher at Gould Academy, marry Freeman’s nephew and have two daughters of her own.
“She learned to walk and she learned to ski” through the organization and Freeman’s persistence in getting her involved, said Freeman’s husband, Greg Sweetser, who runs the Ski Maine Association. That determination to help a young patient epitomized his wife’s approach to life and her role as one of the first family nurse practitioners in the state, he said.
“She was always working, always striving and always doing something,” Sweetser said of Freeman, who died Saturday at 61 after a year-and-a-half struggle with cancer.
Even the way Freeman found out she had cancer reflected that striving, always active nature, Sweetser said. The couple settled into a hut after a 20-mile backcountry skiing trek in Maine and Freeman was sweating a little that night, despite the fact that the temperature was below zero.
A few days later, she found a lump and doctors said she had stage 4 uterine cancer. Sweetser said she responded well to chemotherapy and doctors initially thought she might be one of the few to survive the cancer. They later found it had spread.
Freeman spoke of her experience at a charity event this year at Sugarloaf, Sweetser said.
“She had 350 people spellbound” with her story, he said.
Sweetser said Freeman was busy no matter the season. The couple were avid skiers, and Freeman loved to garden in warmer months.
She also had an active career in nursing and later as a nurse practitioner at Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she worked in the intensive care unit; the Strong Area Health Center; Rangeley Health Center, and Sugarloaf Region Health Center. She was also director of the Saddleback Ski Area Ski Patrol and the Rangeley Region Ambulance Service and worked at Tri-County Family Planning, Student Health Services at the University of Maine at Farmington, Lakes Region Primary Care in Windham, Androscoggin Cardiology in Auburn, and the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Center in Lewiston.
Freeman and Sweetser moved 20 years ago from Rangeley to a farm in Cumberland Center that has been in Sweetser’s family for more than 200 years. Sweetser’s Apple Barrel and Orchards is a popular spot for apple picking and getting fresh apple cider in the fall.
“The orchard was a hobby we did as a team,” Sweetser said.
Sweetser said he and Freeman agreed on their outlook on life that kept them going, especially in the last 18 months.
“Every morning, we chose to smile,” he said. “That’s what got us through: We chose our attitude.”
In addition to her husband, Freeman is survived by the couple’s two children, Samuel Billings Sweetser and his wife, Erin McDermott Sweetser, of Park City, Utah, and Eben Winthrop Sweetser of Orono; her siblings, Sue Atwood and her husband, Rusty, of Gorham; John Freeman and his wife, Johnna Haskell, of Carrabassett Valley; and Betsy Doyon and her husband, Dennis, of Bethel; her brother-in-law Rick Sweetser and his wife, Linda, of Raymond; her sister-in-law Cathy Sweetser and her husband, Jock Moore, of Greenville; and her in-laws Dick and Connie Sweetser of Cumberland Center.
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