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hplandmark.com life & arts<br />
the highland park landmark | July 18, 2019 | 19<br />
‘Overwhelmed with immense gratitude’<br />
Family supported<br />
during cancer<br />
battle by HP-based<br />
organization<br />
Jason Addy<br />
Contributing Editor<br />
In the days, weeks and<br />
months following Justin<br />
Ericsson’s skin cancer diagnosis<br />
in May 2017, life<br />
quickly began to change<br />
for him and his family.<br />
With Justin requiring<br />
extensive treatment and<br />
regular medical appointments<br />
— and doctors initially<br />
estimating he had<br />
only a year to live — time<br />
was fading. Justin and his<br />
wife, Jennifer, worried<br />
they would struggle to<br />
keep life as normal as possible<br />
for their two young<br />
sons — Josh, 9, and Ethan,<br />
7.<br />
But soon after the “lifechanging”<br />
diagnosis,<br />
friends, neighbors and others<br />
from around the Glenview<br />
community started<br />
reaching out offering to<br />
help the Ericssons by taking<br />
the boys to school<br />
and practices, picking up<br />
groceries, dropping off<br />
meals, and lending an ear<br />
and their support, Jennifer<br />
said.<br />
This included help from<br />
the Highland Park-based<br />
Anthony Rizzo Family<br />
Foundation, which awarded<br />
a grant to Jennifer, Josh<br />
and Ethan to help them<br />
begin to rebuild our lives,<br />
Executive Director Abby<br />
Suarez said.<br />
“The Foundation regularly<br />
helps families who<br />
are facing financial struggles<br />
due to a Cancer diagnosis.<br />
We heard about the<br />
Ericsson family and were<br />
honored to be able to help<br />
the family as they adjust<br />
to a new normal after the<br />
loss of Justin,” Suarez said<br />
in a statement. “No family<br />
should ever have to<br />
go through what Jennifer,<br />
Josh and Ethan are dealing<br />
with and to be able to relieve<br />
some of the financial<br />
burden for Jennifer as she<br />
grieves the loss of her husband<br />
and tries to rebuild<br />
their life is something Anthony<br />
and his family are<br />
proud to support.”<br />
“The community around<br />
us just embraced us and<br />
took us in so many ways<br />
and kept knocking on the<br />
door,” Jennifer said shortly<br />
after Justin’s death on April<br />
14. “In so many ways, they<br />
supported us and helped to<br />
carry us through this, and<br />
they still do.”<br />
“There’s a number of<br />
things (where) we’ll never<br />
know who did what because<br />
everyone’s so modest<br />
and quiet about it. But<br />
it’s allowed our family to<br />
be together, to be more<br />
present through all of this.”<br />
“While we’re mourning<br />
him … we’re also just<br />
overwhelmed and floored<br />
at all the love and support<br />
that’s come out from<br />
the community,” Jennifer<br />
added.<br />
Justin and Jennifer Ericsson smile at the camera with<br />
their sons, Josh and Ethan. Photo Courtesy of Jennifer<br />
Ericsson<br />
Justin Ericsson, 42,<br />
died April 14 following<br />
an almost two-year battle<br />
against melanoma.<br />
He was diagnosed in<br />
May 2017 after visiting the<br />
emergency room with flulike<br />
symptoms, Jennifer<br />
said. After informing doctors<br />
that he had potential<br />
melanoma spots removed<br />
several years previously,<br />
they conducted scans of<br />
his head, which revealed a<br />
baseball-sized brain tumor.<br />
Further tests showed multiple<br />
tumors throughout his<br />
body.<br />
In an effort to beat the<br />
disease, Justin sought<br />
out numerous aggressive<br />
experimental treatments<br />
that provided the medical<br />
community with new<br />
knowledge on the effects<br />
of various treatment combinations.<br />
Jennifer said her husband’s<br />
love for his family<br />
and “his passion for life”<br />
inspired him to fight.<br />
“He loved life and his<br />
family and all the dreams<br />
he had to carry out with<br />
our boys, wanting to be<br />
able to be there for them<br />
and for us,” Jennifer said.<br />
Justin owned and operated<br />
Profit from Rentals,<br />
working to make homes<br />
attainable for young families<br />
and first-time homeowners,<br />
Jennifer said.<br />
“He took such great<br />
pride and joy in being<br />
able to hand keys over to<br />
a young family that may<br />
be receiving government<br />
assistance and not … had<br />
an opportunity to live in<br />
a beautiful home before,”<br />
Jennifer said.<br />
As a self-employed entrepreneur,<br />
Justin did not<br />
have financial supports<br />
like life insurance and he<br />
had not been working in<br />
recent months as his health<br />
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worsened, Jennifer said. A<br />
GoFundMe page set up for<br />
the family had raised more<br />
than $36,000 by the start<br />
of June and that money<br />
will be crucial as Jennifer<br />
and her sons “transition<br />
into our new lives.”<br />
Full story at HPLandmark.com.<br />
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