Elissa Puskarich

My wife, Elissa, is easily the most beautiful, awesome, caring and down to earth person I have ever known. We have three wonderful kids together. She was extremely family oriented and most passionate about her family. I could go on and on about her and it would all be true, but if you are reading this, I feel you need to understand what she went through and how she dealt with it. This is the easiest…and hardest…way for me to convey who she was. After two weeks of headaches, Elissa ended up in the local ER on Labor Day 2015. A large mass was found in her left frontal lobe and she was transferred to a major hospital in Chicago. Two days later she had a 90-95% resection done and it was a few days later that we found out the diagnosis and prognosis. As her Neuro Oncologist described GBM and gave us the average life-span, I began to cry. In fact, I believe I cried the rest of the lengthy appointment. Elissa was a little shocked, but listened very carefully to her doctor without much emotion. She said something to the effect of, “Whatever you tell me I need to do, I will do it”…and she did. Her focus remained on her family and ensuring her kids’ lives remained as normal as possible. She went through two brain surgeries, radiation, chemo and three trials. She never broke down crying, never complained; She lived her life the best her brain and the rest of her body would allow. Over the course of this last year, we have had several conversations that were very upsetting and surreal. She knew her time was limited, but again her kids came first and every decision was made with them in mind. Her passing actually was very unexpected, we thought we had many more months together. Looking back at her last day and her last few days, she remained stubborn to the situation and family oriented as ever. She insisted on doing several things around the house that she didn’t really need to do, but she wanted to keep the normalcy for her family. Having seen what my wife went through and her demeanor to this terrible disease, I feel like my words above are not enough to convey who she was. She lived her life, she laughed, she spent time with her kids…she lived the most normal life imaginable. I will love you forever Elissa. I wish I could find more words to truly reflect how amazing you are.