Dave Coulier has a lot to look forward to, despite being diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma in October.
The 65-year-old actor, who played Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom “Full House,” revealed that he’s about to become a grandfather for the first time when his son, Luc, and his wife, Alex, welcome their first child.
Coulier, who revealed the news in an exclusive interview with People, said the baby is due in March, roughly one month after he’s set to finish chemotherapy.
”There’s a lot to look forward to,” he told People.
While he admits telling his son about the diagnosis was “tough” considering the timing of it all, that hasn’t stopped Coulier from getting excited about what life as a grandfather will be like.
That includes introducing the baby to all of his favorite sports and hobbies, including hockey and airplanes —two things he and his son already bond over.
“You talk about an apple not falling far from the tree,” he said of Luc, whom he shares with ex-wife Jayne Modean.
“My son Luc plays hockey three days a week. I used to take him up flying with me when he was a baby, and now he’s a pilot for FedEx,” he added.
Coulier is an avid hockey — and Detroit Red Wings — fan, and even appeared in a local newspaper after attending a game when he was a child.
“I grew up in Detroit. I was 7 years old when I went to Olympia Arena in downtown Detroit with my dad to see my first Wings game,” he said in a 2009 interview with Bleacher Report.
“The next morning, my dad and I ended up on the front page of the Detroit News sports section featuring a shot of disgruntled Wings fans.”
But when he’s not acting or watching hockey, he’s a private pilot with an instrument rating in Los Angeles.
Coulier was only 5 years old when he first flew in a plane with his father at an airport named McKinley in Fraser, Michigan.
“When I was a kid, he would take me flying and to air shows, and buy me model airplanes to build,” he said in a 2012 interview with the AOPA Foundation.
“So when I was 17 I’d saved enough money to start flight training. I ended up getting my private license at the same airport (McKinley) where I took that first flight with my dad.”
In his Nov. 13 interview with People, Coulier opened up about the emotions he felt the moment he found out he had cancer.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but there was an inner calm about all of it,” he said after admitting he was initially stunned by the diagnosis.
Once he saw how his wife, Melissa Coulier, reacted to the news, he knew he had to be strong.
“I looked at how those words affected [my wife] and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to be strong throughout this, not just for me, but I’m going to be strong for her,’” he told People.
He also says he was inspired by other family members who have gone through cancer journeys of their own.
“They really instilled that in me and inspired me in a way because they were magnificent going through what they went through, and I just thought, ‘I’m okay with this too,’” he said.