Six days after a brain cancer diagnosis as he was leaving the hospital with wife, Gina, and their four children, Chris Prue, 37, said to Gina, “Let’s get a tree.”
She noted he could barely walk, but he insisted, saying he would just “stand by the car,” as their life revolves around their children.
So they got that Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving — and it’s been downhill from there, as Chris would soon return to the hospital.
“I do a lot of praying – I rely on God,” Gina Prue, 35, said. “I know it’s out of my hands.”
Life has been tough financially for the family since Chris Prue’s diagnosis Nov. 18, as he hasn’t been able to work. A normal week for him includes lots of overtime for the family to get by.
The hard-working couple is behind on their bills and managing to pay rent on their Seymour duplex through a GoFundMe campaign set up by his brother, Len Prue III. So far they have raised $14,405 of a $20,000 goal.
They are eating by the grace of a meal train set up by friends in the community, Gina Prue said.
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Chris Prue, a patient at Smilow Cancer Center gets a visit from daughter Penelope, next to him, as wife, Gina and son, Elijah, pose for the camera. The Prues have four young children.
But just when they thought the generosity of the community would get them by short term, the family’s 2007 Dodge Caravan broke down for good on the day of his diagnosis.
Len Prue said he believes the engine has seized.
Len Prue said he is hoping a car dealer might have a reliable, used van they can donate to get his younger brother’s family through the crisis more smoothly.
“We’re very blessed with all the support we’ve had,” Len Prue said. “It would be a lot more difficult without people backing us up.”
Gina Prue is borrowing a nephew’s car for now, but in order to go anywhere with all the kids, most importantly to visit dad in the hospital, they need a van because there are three car seats.
There are also grocery trips and doctor’s appointments.
Their oldest, Penelope, turns 10 on Dec. 26, Samson is 3, Daphne is 18 months old, and the baby, Elijah, is 4 months old.
Len Prue said his brother is a great dad — engaging, loving — and the kids are surely “confused” by his absence.
“They’re kind of heartbroken,” Len Prue said. “This hit us out of nowhere, a lot of emotions.”
Gina Prue said Christmas gifts for the children aren’t a concern because they are not materialistic during the holiday and each child gets a couple of gifts.
Chris Prue is back in the hospital and recently spent a week in ICU because of pneumonia and a blood infection or sepsis.
Chris Prue was diagnosed with melanoma last year and went through chemotherapy treatment expecting a cure. He missed some work installing garage doors when chemo had side effects, but managed to work most of the time.
But in recent months he began having memory issues, slurring, numbness on one side.
Chris Prue didn’t tell his wife at first because he wanted to continue working.
Finally when he told her about the numbness, she said he had to call the oncologist.
An MRI confirmed on Nov. 18 that the cancer had spread from his lymph nodes to his brain, she said.
“He couldn’t process it or it was a lot to take,” Gina Prue said of his seeming under-reaction. “He said it will be fine.”
There were six large lesions they targeted with gamma-knife radiation cancer.
After that treatment combined with immunotherapy, he developed the sickness that put him back in the hospital.
He remains hospitalized, but has stabilized, Gina Prue said.
As for the cancer, with immunotherapy doctors give Chris a 40-50 percent chance of survival, Gina said.
Anxious about finances, Chris Prue keeps asking the doctor when he can go back to work. Doctors tell him they will take it week by week.
Gina Prue is a preschool teacher, but her salary doesn’t come close to paying the bills. The family has no internet right now.
“I think the hardest thing is when I put the kids to bed and I’m by myself,” Gina said. “It’s our us time before bed…”It’s so hard without him here. I’m really lost.”
The couple met when she was 16, he was 18 at a mutual friend’s house. They became friends and stayed that way until she was 22 and it turned romantic.
They had Penelope, who remained an only child for years.
But the couple took stock of priorities during the pandemic, and decided they wanted a big family.
They have since had the three other children, never imagining a wrench like brain cancer.
Gina said she and Chris are so connected with the kids they don’t do date nights, but do family outings instead.
She and brother Len said Chris likes to spend every minute he can playing with the kids. The children are expressing that they miss him at home.
“He’s very kind. He’s just a really good person,” she said. “He has a gentleness to him, He never yells.”
Gina Prue said they aren’t the type of people to ask for help, and she’s amazed by the outpouring in GoFundMe donations and from family and friends.
“We are so lucky to have a great support system, it’s beyond helpful,” she said.
The day the van broke Gina Prue was on the way home from the hospital with son, Samson, 3, who had been rushed there by ambulance because he had eaten a Tylenol thinking it was candy and had an open bottle in his hand. Gina said the Tylenol is usually kept high above the kids’ reach, but her husband was needing it a lot, so it was accidentally left out.
It turned out Samson was fine and hadn’t chewed any more than that one pill.
The van started to die as she followed the ambulance to the hospital, then conked out on the way home.