Santa Claus will be short an elf when he participates in various events in Eureka this Christmas season.
Chris Clute, 66, of Eureka will not don her elf costume this year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Chris had been a staple for the past 20 years at Eureka Christmas events, either playing the part of Mrs. Claus or an elf, but because she’s in a high-risk category for COVID-19, she’s opting to sit this holiday out.
Chris said she discovered a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with cancer in the spring.
“That was deep in the middle of
COVID,” she said.
Chris said she is going to miss interacting with children.
“Right now, my priority is me,” she said. “I have to take care of me. I am putting the community on the back burner.”
Chris taught in the Meramec Valley R-3 School District from 1977 to 2006, then was a preschool teacher at Most Sacred Heart from 2006 to 2019. Before March, she was working in Tot Care, a childcare program at the Timbers of Eureka.
Eureka Parks and Recreation coordinator Lizzie Roberds said Chris has been missed at the Timbers and the Santa Claus events already held this year.
“We had pictures with Santa last weekend, which was great, and we would have loved to have Chris out there,” Roberds said. “We are definitely missing that spirit and smiling face around our events and especially the Santa events.”
Chris stopped dressing up as Mrs. Claus in 2006 after children began to identify her as playing the character. Still, a decade later, she said, many people still refer to her as Mrs. Claus.
“I was Mrs. Claus at Eureka High School for the Eureka theater group,” she said. “It was my first year teaching at Sacred Heart, and I dressed up as Mrs. Claus with the red dress and everything. (A student) came up and she goes, ‘You sure sound a lot like Mrs. Clute.’ I said, ‘Well, you know, I hear that a lot. She’s my cousin.’ That was the last time I dressed up as Mrs. Claus; from that point on I was an elf.”
Cancer battle
Chris was diagnosed with cancer on May 8 following a series of tests. The day she received the news was her and her husband, John’s, 21st anniversary.
Chris said John, 64, was only able to attend some of her appointments and tests because of concern for the spread of
COVID-19. While her husband wasn’t there for every medical visit, she said she was grateful he was there for some of them.
“To have him sitting next to me was a blessing. I would have dealt with it, but it would have been much harder,” she said.
After consulting with doctors, Chris opted to have a bilateral mastectomy, which is the surgical removal of both breasts. “I said, ‘I want to go for both, and I don’t want to have to go through this down the road,’” she said.
Chris said the appointments before the surgery were difficult as John was not allowed to be with her due to the pandemic.
“I called and had him on the phone so he could hear through the phone,” she said.
John said he had to wait in the car during appointments.
“That was tough,” he said.
John said he was able to wait with Chris before her surgery June 9, but after the procedure, he again was not allowed to be present and receive updates from doctors.
Chris said she received more bad news after she awoke from her surgery. She was informed that she had Stage 3 cancer rather than Stage 1, her original diagnosis.
“I’m having to deal with all this by myself because (John is) not there,” Chris said. “I was mortified. There was no breast cancer history in my family.”
Chris experienced a post-surgery setback while sitting on the porch with her daughter, Lizard Clute, 30. (Chris’s daughter prefers to be referred to as Lizard over her birth name of Elizabeth. Chris said she always has referred to her as Lizard since the day she was born.)
Doctors had to create a drainage system for Chris to relieve pressure after the surgery, but something went wrong.
“All of a sudden the tubing completely filled with bright purple fluid and then my chest just filled with blood,” she said. “It was horrific. What ended up happening is I developed a hematoma, and I had to go back in for emergency surgery.”
Chris had eaten before the malfunction and had to wait eight hours before surgery could be performed. She again had to wait in the hospital alone, only being able to speak with John on the phone.
Chris began chemotherapy treatments July 14. She said she is nearing completion of the 25 rounds of treatment.
The treatments again leave Chris in solitude as visitors are not allowed during the sessions that last more than three hours.
Lizard created a Facebook group to have people mail cards, books and puzzle books so her mom would have something to do during the treatments.
“As I’m reading them, the tears are coming down, because of the words that the people have put about being a fighter and if anybody could beat it, I could and how strong I was,” Chris said.
Chris said she was concerned about hair loss as a result of the radiation. Before treatment, Chris organized an event in Berry Park to have people help her shorten her hair. Her hair was tied up into multiple ponytails and people donated money to have each ponytail cut off.
Chris said she intended the event to be a learning experience for children about the effects of cancer and radiation treatments.
Chris said about $300 was raised during the event, and she plans to donate it to Friends of Kids with Cancer.
Even though Chris wanted her hair shorter, more hair was removed than planned. When she spoke up about the hair removal, the former teacher received a familiar reply.
“All of a sudden all the parents at the same time all said, ‘You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit,’ because that was my saying,” she said.
COVID-19 concerns
Chris said battling breast cancer and making sure she remains healthy during a pandemic has been a challenge.
“I’m scared to death that I’m going to get it,” Chris said. “I just can’t afford it between my heart and then going through this radiation.”
Chris said it bothers her when she sees people not wearing a mask encountering others in public places.
“I know people will say, ‘Well, if you’ve got issues, just stay at home,’” she said. “Well, you can’t always just stay at home. You’ve got to go out, and for the sake of other people, people need to wear masks. My belief is the only way this is going to go away is if everybody wears masks.”
Lizard, who lives with John and Chris, works at Schnucks in Eureka. Chris said when her daughter comes home from work, Lizard goes straight into the shower and makes sure to wash her clothes.
Chris said Lizard and her son, Riley, 32, who works at Six Flags, also remain six to 10 feet away from her most of the time.
“We’ve given a hug to each other twice,” Chris said of Lizard.
Throughout her journey, Chris said she has put it “in God’s hands.”
“I don’t know why I was given this trial, but there are some reasons,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s all part of God’s plan for me and I have to deal with it.”