Regular breakfast customers at Phil’s Restaurant in Red Deer are rallying around their favourite server who lost her legs due to a rare condition.
Having brightened many mornings for her customers, Andrea Bruce is now getting some love back through a GoFundMe campaign her regulars organized to help her buy some prosthetic “water legs.”
“Andrea is bubbly, witty and fast — she can razz us as much as we razz her,” said her customer Ron Soehn. He’s known Bruce since 2009, when Soehn’s breakfast group began meeting for coffee at Phil’s most Wednesdays before work.
He describes the 14-year Phil’s Restaurant server as “a super go-getter…. you rarely had to ask for more coffee…”
A table of four to six regulars traded jokes and friendly jibes with Bruce, getting to know the married mom of two and grandmother of five.
Her absence was noticed in December 2021. But her customers initially heard she was working a different shift. Soehn only recently learned Bruce had been fighting a life-threatening condition called Purpura Fulminans.
This resulted in the amputation of both of her legs below the knee and five of her fingers.
“I went out for a walk, in tears… I couldn’t believe something like that had happened to Andrea,” recalled Soehn.
The rare disorder results from a coagulation of small blood vessels within the skin, rapidly leading to the premature death of cells and blood clots. The condition is associated with severe infections and an inherited genetic defect.
While most people would be “totally crushed” to lose their legs during an 82-day long hospital stay, Bruce is not one to wallow in her troubles, said Soehn.
“She was like, ‘OK, I lost my legs, so when am I going to walk again? Am I going to be able to walk in two or four weeks? What’s the story?’
“If somebody had to get this and survive and not mope around, it would have to be Andrea,” he added.
His breakfast group was amazed when she popped in one Wednesday morning to say, “Hi.” Soehn said she was already so stable on her prosthetic legs that “from the knees up, she was the same as she’s ever been.”
Bruce’s customers heard she was saving to get some ‘swim legs’ to wear in the shower and on future camping trips, since regular prosthetics can’t get wet.
“We were inspired,” said Soehn, whose group decided to start a fundraiser to help her achieve this goal. “She was not devastated. She was like, ‘I’m going to fight this and (rise above) this…”
Although Bruce was initially reluctant to accept financial help, Soehn was later touched by the generosity of so many people, who want to help her buy prosthetics not covered by Alberta’s health care system.
“Oh my gosh, this means the world to me,” said Bruce on Tuesday. “I am thrilled and touched by the care and the love I’ve received from my customers. It’s been overwhelming. Sometimes I’ve had to walk away to keep my wits and remain professional.”
Bruce is again working at Phil’s, this time, as a part-time hostess, and still figuring out whether she can return to the demands of serving.
Her life-threatening condition made her realize there’s no point holding on to all of the little day-to-day worries and stresses, she said. “I had two choices — to sit around and cry and feel sorry for myself, or to take life by the horns and carry on. And anyone who knows me knows I can’t sit around…”
Since early August, contributions for Bruce have been left at Phil’s, as well as through GoFundMe. Soehn figures more than $8,000 has been collected towards a $10,000 goal.
He said he’s glad to be able to help someone who’s lightened his life, and the lives of so many others.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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