Column: Frances, you will be missed

In life, everyone meets someone with a lot of wisdom.

Remember the little old lady in your place of worship who quietly seemed to live what we were being taught about spiritually? Our family had Frances, who fit this description and shared her wisdom with all of us until her death last week.

I wish we could have put her wisdom in a capsule and when we needed some advice or help with something, we could open it and soak up some of her information. Her feeling of compassion and love were also very real. She believed that even in today’s world we could maintain our humanness with a few checks to the proper charities at the end of the year.

Frances spent the last seven months in an assisted living facility, always gracious and concerned about the other patients. The CNAs and the nurses all grew to love her.

Grief for us is real and it is human. We grieve our losses, whatever they are. Grief is an unfolding process that has many levels.

Luciano De Crescenzo wrote, “We are each angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.” This was Frances’ motto.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 9:28 AM with the headline "Column: Frances, you will be missed."