The Bachelorette is remembering contestant Erich Schwer's late father Allan Robert Schwer.
After airing the episode in which Bachelorette Gabby Windey met Erich's dad on hometown dates, the show included an in memoriam tribute to Allan, who passed away after filming.
On the day of the Aug. 22 episode, Erich also honored his father by posting a few pictures of Allan and a heart emoji to Instagram. One of the photos was of a memorial card with the words "in loving memory of Allan R. Schwer" and the date of his death listed as July 6, 2022, five days before The Bachelorette season 19 premiere. He was 65 years old.
Erich mourned the death of his father in a post shared to Instagram July 9. "Thankful for everything you've done for me," the contestant wrote. "We are gonna miss the hell out of you Big AL. I love you so much dad."
During Erich's hometown date with Gabby in New Jersey, he spoke to her about Allan's battle with cancer.
"He was legitimately supposed to die, like, three times," Erich said. "And that was, like, really, really hard to come to terms with."
Allan said he was diagnosed with appendiceal cancer, and Gabby shared he'd been battling it for three years.
"The last CT scan showed that the cancer came back," Allan said during the episode. "It's being a little more aggressive. But I went through three rounds of chemo, first two did nothing and the third one almost killed me."
Erich praised his mom Donna for the way she cared for Allan and expressed how he admired their love. As Donna told Gabby, "We'll be married 35 years, and we've been through a lot. You always have to stay together and be together, always."
After the episode aired, several of Erich's fellow contestants expressed their condolences on Instagram. "He raised a good man," Logan Palmer wrote in the comments of Erich's post. Added James "Meatball" Clarke, "Love guy my guy!"