Let's Help Our Friend Bruce!

Let me start by acknowledging that Bruce would kill us if he knew we were doing something like this on his behalf. 

The other day I reached out to Bruce Parker to check in and see how he's been doing.  All of us know Bruce and have had a chance to work with him one way or another.  He is an amazing man, a true professional, master carpenter, and friend to us all.  Earlier in the year when I reached out, he was his normal self, said a few funny things, and I didn't think twice.  I knew Bruce was probably one of the first to be placed on furlough because of COVID, so I reached out again on Saturday just to check in.  Bruce will occasionally talk about his personal life, but he's very humble so when he started to tell me things weren't going well, I knew it was serious.  

Anyway, it turns out that Bruce was the very first person at WDAS to be furloughed and during his time away from work he was spending time with his wife and son, doing lots of projects around the house, working on his truck -- making the best of the situation.  In early May while he was home, his wife Marie was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  Bruce said they were devastated by the news and all the while struggling with finances while he was out of work.  While they were figuring things out with doctors and trying to come up with a treatment plan, Marie suffered a devastating stroke and spent 2-weeks in ICU -- no visitors because of COVID.  One can only imagine how difficult this was on the family and for Bruce -- trying to stay ahead of things and communicate with doctors, getting his son through school and trying to deal with day-to-day at home.  Marie fought hard and was sent home, but she faces a long road for recovery -- learning to walk again, speak again, use her right side, and trying to get through tremendous pain.  As difficult as this is for the family, one of the hardest is that Bruce needs to get back to work desperately because he is going to have a mountain of medical bills and still needs to support his family.   But going back to work, especially in construction, could mean he's around someone with COVID and could risk bringing the virus home to his wife.  In her condition, the virus could kill her.

When I heard Bruce's story I felt terrible.  He's been a special part of the WDAS family and he doesn't have a lot of support right now.  Because of COVID Disney is not able to help and I don't think too many people know what Bruce and his family have been going through.  I know a lot of us have been touched by Bruce and consider him a friend.  He always works so hard and is a true perfectionist.  I know all of us feel the same way and want to help in any way we can.  Any help would be amazing and it would be great to pass word along to the rest of our community.

Thank you.