Lake Zurich veteran remembered for service to country in Iraq and sense of humor in cancer fight
Army veteran Steven Gabriel of Lake Zurich is remembered by family and friends for keeping a sense of humor as he fought cancer and for service to his country in Iraq.
Memorial visitation is set for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Anne Catholic Church in Barrington for Gabriel, 25, who died about three months after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. in the church at 120 N. Ela St.
Cindy Gabriel said her son was a loving father and husband who fought the cancer with honor and dignity. Along with concern about family and friends in his final days, she said, he hoped his two young sons will not forget him.
"He was the jokester who kept you laughing," she said, "and you never knew what he was up to next. He was one that would always be willing to assist anyone in need. He was willing to ensure our freedom by serving in the Army."
Gabriel, his wife and the couple's two young children moved in with his mother in Lake Zurich after the cancer diagnosis in March. Gabriel, who died May 31, was fighting metastatic cancer involving his esophagus, stomach and liver, according to his family.
Hundreds of Lake Zurich-area residents showed their support for Gabriel and his family at a pancake breakfast fundraiser hosted May 18 by members of the South Lake County Regional Community Emergency Response Team.
Pancake breakfast chair Kathy Schildkraut, of Hawthorn Woods, said Gabriel was "a big Teddy bear" with a dry sense of humor and he was a good friend to her son, Eric. She considered Gabriel to be her second son.
"Even two days before he died, family and friends would be talking around his bedside and would think he was sleeping, and out of nowhere he would pipe up with a zinger," Schildkraut said. "Other times, there would be a conversation about decisions to be made and we would think Steve was sleeping and he'd say, 'You just have to do it.'"
Gabriel's family moved to Lake Zurich in 2004. He played on Lake Zurich High School's soccer and lacrosse teams and graduated in 2006.
He completed the local volunteer response team training in 2006 at age 18, attended College of Lake County and joined the Army in 2007. Gabriel served in Iraq from 2009 to 2010.
After his discharge from the Army as a private first class, Gabriel married his wife, Ashli, on Jan. 23, 2010, and lived in Shelbyville, Ind., where they started a family. Born to the couple were 2½-year-old Steven Gabriel Jr. and 1-year-old Zachariah Gabriel.
Local residents supported Gabriel in ways beyond the pancake breakfast at a Lake Zurich fire station. That included response team members, police officers and firefighters gathering outside Gabriel's mother's home to welcome him after he returned from a hospital stay in May.
"Steven and the family appreciated all the love and support they received from the community," Cindy Gabriel said.
Gabriel's other survivors include his father, John; brother, Michael; and stepfather Greg Auseth.