After being badly injured in a car accident that killed her husband last December, Louise Kangas has died from medical complications, her family said.
The 67-year-old Sumner woman had been making progress after suffering traumatic brain damage, her daughter Holly Roberts said, but her condition worsened and she died Monday at Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford.
“She was just a wonderful, caring, loving person,” Roberts said by phone Thursday. “She loved life, loved her family. She always worked 40 hours a week, she always cooked, and did canning, freezing, making jelly, all that stuff we buy off the shelf now.”
Kangas’ husband, Arthur, 69, died at the accident scene Dec. 11 after their Jeep Liberty was struck by another vehicle on Route 4 in Turner near Chickadee Restaurant. The accident is still being investigated, Roberts said.
Louise Kangas was first treated at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston before being transferred to River Ridge Center in Kennebunk, a rehabilitation facility for brain trauma victims.
Roberts said her parents were always together. “You can’t picture one without the other.
“They were very much in love, they were very much in love back when they first started dating; it was apparent as long as I can remember.”
The couple was married in 1958 and had four children: Brian Kangas of Sumner, Julie Toothaker of West Paris, Lisa Ackley of Sumner, and Roberts of Paris. In 2004, Arthur’s brother, Leland Kangas, 52, of Greenwood, was killed in a motorcycle accident in D Township in Franklin County.
Louise and Arthur were born in West Paris. Arthur worked at lumber yards before retiring, and Louise retired from Bessey Motors last June, where she had worked since 1966, Roberts said.
“Anybody in the world would be lucky to have had parents like we had,” Roberts said. “The one place you could always go is back home. They could make everything all right, whether they did anything or not, just listen.”
The memorial service will be held at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School this Sunday at 2 p.m.
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