In Memory of Edward Appelgren

The photo with Dad was taken September 28, 2002. I'm on the left and my sister Connie is on the right. It was her birthday. My dad was going through his first series of chemo, hence the lack of hair. Actually, my father had a full, thick head of hair up until then. GREAT HAIR.

My father, Edward Appelgren, passed away of lung cancer on Jun 13, 2003. So close to Father's Day.

It seemed to take forever to be diagnosed, but he was told July of 2002 that he had stage IV lung cancer. My dad did fight the battle with two forms of chemotherapy and a clincal trial. Dad was only 61 years old.

A little about my father. The first thing that comes to my mind is the outdoors-he was an avid hunter. He had a cabin in Potter County, PA and would hunt for deer up there. He lived in Bucks County, PA and would also hunt there whenever he could. Having two girls probably wasn't the greatest for him, we weren't really into the outdoor thing. But we loved it when he would make us great deer jerky every year! He also loved to fish. The summer before he was told he had cancer he took Connie on a fishing trip to Ocean City, Maryland with my husband, Jon, and a few others. My dad was so proud of my sister for toughing it out. We all had tuna in our freezers for the entire summer, they caught so many!

We knew my father was a very quiet man. Once in a great while he'd tell me what he was thinking. For instance, last October on my second wedding anniversary, he called and left me a message on my answering machine. He told me that my wedding day was one of the happiest days of his life. To think, the happiest day of my life was one of his seemed pretty amazing to me. For him to tell me, that was even better!

Christine Sonsteby