After a nearly two-year cancer battle, Roseville Area High School student Claire Frick died Thursday morning.
She was diagnosed with the rare and deadly childhood cancer Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma after going to an emergency room with unusual bruises.
On Valentine's Day, an MRI showed the cancer had spread throughout her cranium.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, 1669 Arcade St., St. Paul.
And a memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Roseville Area High School auditorium. A reception will follow in the school cafeteria.
Claire's mother, Jane Frick, has chronicled her daughter's struggle with the disease on a CaringBridge site. Many of those entries were shared in a story in Sunday's Pioneer Press.
Here are Jane Frick's entries for Thursday:
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Saying Goodbye
Claire Elizabeth Frick 12-17-93 - 3-1-12
She passed away peacefully in her sleep at 3:06 a.m.
We are all very very sad. Will write more later.
- Jane
Thursday, March 1, 2012
An excerpt: I'm sitting on Claire's comfy bed writing the hardest post I've ever had to write. A piece of my heart has been ripped out and will never completely heal in the same way. I woke up this morning shortly after 3 a.m. and thought I heard Claire moan or make a noise. I wanted to go check on her but for some reason didn't and I fell back asleep. Dan went into her room around 4:30 a.m. to give her meds and she was already cold. He came and got me and I knew. Seth, Hannah, Josh and Vanessa had all spent the night so they were here. I called Jerry and he picked up Ellen and came right over. We all cried and hugged and kissed her and lay beside her. Some of her friends came over on the way to school to say good-bye. So hard for everyone. Hannah and I had both thought about sleeping with her last night, but left her on her own as usual. At first I felt badly about this, but we all decided Claire would have preferred it that way - to go on her own. Her independent, private self ...
My dear Claire, my youngest child, my pudgiest baby with the "thunder thigh" roly-poly legs, who grew into a shy and quiet but oh so sweet little girl with pigtails, always maintained her physical "cuteness" and somehow by-passed those "awkward" years of middle school, and evolved into an amazing adolescent who was more concerned with civil rights and justice than with her own teenage rebellion, and finally who became a woman under the most difficult circumstances ever - being robbed of many joys and privileges so many of us take for granted. ...



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