Husband of Waukesha parade victim learned of her cancer diagnosis after she died: “Maybe God took her so she didn’t have to suffer”

Days after the deadly crash of the Waukesha Parade, the husband of one of the women killed was told by a medical examiner that she had previously undiagnosed uterine cancer.

“I was happy to hear that I could at least give my children the thought that maybe a lot of suffering was being avoided,” John Kulich told CBS Mornings national correspondent David Begnaud. “At least give my kids the thought that, well, maybe God took her away so she wouldn’t have to suffer. And if I could leave them with that.”

His wife, Jane, was one of six people killed when 39-year-old Darrell Brooks drove his SUV into the crowd on Sunday. She was 52 years old.

Kulich remembered his wife as “a beautiful person.”

“Not just for us, but for everyone she met,” he said. “I’ve never heard a bad word about her. Everyone who has met her has always loved her.’

Kulich said Jane was an organ donor and that he hoped that knowing her organs could help someone else would bring comfort to his children. “I’m just trying to show them the bright side because I know Jane would want that,” he said.

“She had an interesting take on things and that everything happened for a reason,” Kulich said. “That was something she used to say whenever something bad happened, ‘Well, things happen for a reason’ and we never know what the reason is. And so when I heard [the cancer diagnosis],,I wanted to say, well maybe this is the reason. I do not know. But I like to think that.”

Kulich said his last day with Jane started at church, listening to a sermon about great couples in the world and how they are better together.

“So I pulled her up and started rubbing her arm and she started rubbing my knee. She knew what I meant, and we knew that was a word from God to us,” he said.

About six hours later, Jane was at the parade with colleagues from the bank where she worked when she was run over.

“Her whole world was her family. And she was good at it, really good at it. She was the rock that held us together, the steady force,” Kulich said.

She was a grandmother of three and a mother of three.

“The only thing I can say about her that I can’t say about anyone else is that I’ve never heard her say a bad word, even about the people she doesn’t like,” her son Jacob said.

John Kulich is now preparing to bury his 22-year-old bride.

“We were a team. That was my partner. I don’t know if I am, I’m not capable of doing all this alone,” he said. “I needed her. I’ve always needed her and they need her too.’

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