An estimated 150 students left the prom earlier this month and filled the Glovers’ front yard.
“Everybody came up and hugged her and took pictures,” said Mrs. Glover. “It was lovely.”
Janae’s illness “came out of the blue” the week before Easter when she had a headache, her mother said.
A Saturday visit to urgent care led to a Tuesday visit to her regular doctor. A diagnosis of a sinus infection gave way to the possibility of something viral when the headache led to vomiting.
Then Mrs. Glover came home from sunrise services on Easter to find Janae on her back on her bedroom floor.
“She was responding,” Mrs. Glover said, “but her eyes looked dead to me.”
A CT scan at Dayton Children’s Hospital revealed a tumor on the right front lobe of Janae’s brain “and at that point it was bleeding already,” her mother said.
Surgery that day removed the tumor, and when tests revealed a soft tissue carcinoma, doctors installed a port May 4, but said chemotherapy could wait until after her prom.
When the day arrived, “she was too weak to go,” her mother said.
Student Body President Jonathan Gummel said that after the announcement during prom that Janae had been elected queen, students “wanted to leave early to go give her the crown.”
“We filled up her front yard,” he said. “It was the coolest event of the evening.”
Prom King Chase Weber presented Janae her sash, scepter and crown, and “everybody cheered her on,” said Springfield High Campus Director Chris Shaffer.
“We have amazing, wonderful kids at this high school,” Shaffer added. “That story never gets told enough.”
Since prom night, Janae has had setbacks.
In the hospital the next Monday, “they discovered the tumor had grown back, worse than it was in the first place,” her mother said. That surgery removed as much as possible, but required that Janae get eight units of blood.
Swelling in her brain has since led doctors to take a bone flap from her skull, then install a drain to remove gathering fluid.
“As of now, I have no idea when she’s coming home,” her mother said. She certainly won’t be home in time for Saturday’s graduation.
Mrs. Glover said her family has been pulling together. Son Mychal has been calling daily from Japan, where he’s in the Air Force awaiting word about whether he’ll be stationed in Afghanistan; 19-year-old daughter Jazmyne has been home from school helping care for her young son, Christion; and Janae’s father has been calling from Florida.
“It’s excruciating to watch your child go through this,” Stephanie Glover said. “I just keep encouraging her (saying) the end is in sight, but we’ve got to survive the journey.”
“And I want everybody to know what the (Springfield High) kids did for her.”
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