Easter Sunday 2012 is one that the Nunez family will likely never forget.
Chris, a vibrant, loquacious mother of two who was working part-time for the city at the time, and Andy Nunez, her semi-retired, loving husband, were having family from both sides over for the holiday.
Chris wasn’t feeling herself, and hadn’t for days, so her daughter Emilie decided to contact a family friend and doctor to ask about her recent symptoms. Fearing a possible stroke or something else serious, Andy took the friend’s advice and drove his wife to the emergency room at St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy.
That’s when the doctor asked Chris a series of questions such as Where are you?, Why are you here?, and Do you think anything is wrong with you?, according to Andy. After the same “I don’t know” response from Chris following each question, a CT scan was ordered. The results would change the Nunez clan’s lives forever.
A brain mass, or lesion, was detected and Chris was given steroids to bring down swelling in her brain.
“She went from being completely out of it to being really hungry,” recalled Andy, who then brought his wife home for Easter dinner with the family. “She hadn’t eaten all week so I felt maybe she was better.”
“I just wanted to eat. I didn’t know what was going on. I just wanted to eat,” remembered Chris, who was still trying to digest the startling news about her health.
The following Thursday, a trip to a neurologist at the county hospital in San Jose confirmed the presence of an egg-sized mass. Andy said that doctors wanted Chris to remain on steroids for a couple of weeks, but he wanted more immediate action. The next morning, they were at the hospital in Stanford, where they later learned Chris had a multi-form gliomablastoma. Brain surgery was scheduled for the following week.
“It’s the worst you can have as far as tumors go,” Andy explained as the married couple of 25 years sat at at a local coffeehouse alongside their son Chase recalling the sequence of events that began that Easter 2012, nearly five years ago. “It’s like you can take a tree out of the ground, but its roots are still there.”
After surgeons at Stanford removed the brain tumor on that fateful Friday, Chris was able to return home a week after Easter. Her teenage son, Chase, who figured his mom would be bedridden for at least a few days after brain surgery, recalled his mom walking up the stairs and even carrying laundry the very next day.
“I just wanted to go back to work,” said Chris, a reliable employee who had almost never missed any time due to illness. “Now, I live very positively everyday.”
She has her good days and her not-so-good ones.
Every three months for the last five years, she must attend routine check-up to make sure there is no growth. These checkups have all shown her health in the clear so far.
Shortly thereafter, Chase, a sophomore at Ann Sobrato High School at the time, discovered the Morgan Hill Relay For Life through a friend and decided to form a team in his mother’s name, called “Team Chris.” He fondly remembered walking the survivor lap with his mother and that his team walked more laps than any other (500 to be exact) at that 2014 Relay.
“We didn’t sleep. We had music. We were dancing. We had glow sticks,” said Chase, now 19, of his first experience at the American Cancer Society’s biggest annual fundraiser.
“Once everything got going, you couldn’t believe the positive energy,” Andy added. “It was very emotional.”
Helping others through Relay
This year, the 2017 Morgan Hill Relay For Life is scheduled from 10 a.m. May 20 to 10 a.m. May 21 at Community Park (171 W. Edmundson Ave.) Twenty-eight participating teams have already raised $23,570 of organizers’ goal of $88,000 by the event’s conclusion. For more information on joining or donating to the Relay, visit relayforlife.org/morganhill.
Chris and Andy Nunez, who first met while both were working in an advertising agency in San Jose circa 1985, are now the marketing leads for the Relay organizing committee. They moved to Morgan Hill 26 years ago to raise their family.
“It makes me stronger knowing that I’m not alone,” said Chris of taking on an active role in the Relay.
Along with her husband, Chris, now 58, also attends a monthly support group at Stanford for brain tumor survivors and their families.
“I think Chris has been very strong. She doesn’t hesitate to call back the people she meets, sometimes all it takes is just a phone call or encouragement,” said Andy, 62, a Gilroy native who grew up in Almaden Valley. “It’s the new normal. You get used to it.”
Also a norm these days, Chris is a silent leader of the Nunez family and thrill-seeker of sorts, enjoying any type of racing or sailing where she can go fast.
“We put her in front and we follow and she leads. She’s always been our beacon of light to go forward,” Andy said. “Our relationship has gotten very one day at a time, one week at a time. We only look so far ahead. We don’t look back.”
Chase, now attending Santa Barbara City College, echoed his dad’s sentiments on life: “I was put in a position where I had to grow up quickly….You learn to smile and laugh at the things that maybe most people might not.”
The last five years have not been easy, but the Relay and the ACS have helped develop a network of support for survivors and their families like the Nunez.
“We know how important it is to have help along the way, emotional help or just a ride to an appointment. These are some of the things that the Relay for Life does,” said Andy, noting that the Relay has even purchased medicines and secured housing for those in need. “All these things are done behind the scenes so nobody hears about it.”
What: 2017 Morgan Hill Relay For Life
When: 10 a.m. May 20 to 10 a.m. May 21
Where: Community Park (171 W. Edmundson Ave.)
How: relayforlife.org/morganhill
