SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Sioux City woman says she’ll think of her husband this weekend as she drives to Omaha in a car stuffed with hundreds of stuffed bears and other animals. Kerry Ruehl and her children will take more than 500 bears to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where her husband Mike “Bear” Ruehl was treated for cancer at times over a dozen years. He died Feb. 6 in Omaha at age 60. For his funeral, the family asked that people bring a stuffed animal.

Kerry Ruehl tells the Sioux City Journal that during her husband’s treatment, they watched sick children in strollers or pulling their IVs. They didn’t think it was fair.  She thought this was a way her husband, who loved working with children, could continue spreading cheer.