HOBOKEN — Mayoral candidate Everton Wilson, a 45-year-old Jamaican graduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology who lost his bid for Hoboken mayor Tuesday night, announced Thursday that his doctors have told him he has four or five years to live, although they have yet to diagnose his condition.
Another newspaper said that Wilson told them that doctors said he has a mass in his stomach.
Wilson obtained just a handful of votes Tuesday as one of six candidates facing Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer for the chance to lead the mile-square city for the next four years.
Wilson said Thursday that he has been suffering from weight loss and exhaustion, and although his doctors have not yet pinpointed the exact ailment he is suffering from, he said they told him he may not last another five years.
Wilson said he will try to see another gastrointestinal specialist before he departs for his native Jamaica on Sunday. Wilson said he wants to be in his homeland, if these are his final years.
He sent out this e-mail today:
My doctors said I will die in four to five years.
I will be leaving the United States for Jamaica on Sunday – should my life expire I want to be in my homeland.
My farewell party will be at 108 14th Street, Hoboken on Friday at 8 p.m.
God bless us all – see you in Heaven.
Wilson said in an interview that he was “crushed” when he heard the news, but “at the very least, I can enjoy the rest of my life.”
“I’ve never been sick,” he said. “I’m not the sick type. This is something devastating to me.”
“The funny thing is, my spirits are still up. They were down, but nothing keeps me down. Even impending death,” he said. — TJC