Roseville High School Student Claire Frick Remembered at Memorial Service

It was a time for tears and laughter when family, friends and classmates gathered at a memorial service Sunday afternoon to remember Claire Frick, a Roseville High School student who died last week after a nearly two-year battle with a rare childhood cancer. 

Hundreds of people packed the Roseville High School auditorium as they remembered Frick in song, word and prayer.

"Claire is remembered as a smart, talented and passionate young woman," her memorial bulletin said. "She involved herself in choir, plays and musicals, the speech team and various art classes. Her kind personality and great sense of humor made her easy to love."

Family friend Sigrid Tornquist described Claire as an essentially quiet, private young women who nonethlesss gravitated towards art and the stage.

Family members also said Claire was a hard worker, tenacious and dedicated. "I knew her as one tough kid," said Dan Vasterling, partner to Claire's mother Jane Frick.

The Rev. Beth Donaldson, pastor at United Church of Christ in New Brighton, delivered a meditation during the nearly two-hour memorial service. "It is right to feel angry and cheated that Claire's life was so short," Donaldson said.

Nonetheless, Donaldson said that Claire,18, "had changed the world" even during her short life. "Claire was changing everyone she met," she said. "In creating music and art, she (Claire) blessed the world."

Frick died last Thursday morning after a nearly two-year battle with a rare childhood cancer. During June , 2010, Frick was diagnosed with Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma after going to an emergency room St. Paul Children's Hospital. On Valentine's Day last month, an MRI showed the cancer had spread throughout her cranium, the Pioneer Press reporrted.