Story from Memorial Service

A teaching colleague of mine, Frank, passed away a few weeks ago of pancreatic cancer. There was a memorial service today, followed by a gathering where we had a buffet and each person who wanted could tell a memory or give a little speech about Frank.

Here was, hands down, the best story of all:

There was a couple there and they were close to Frank. Apparently Frank spent many holidays with this couple. Frank also tutored Gina (the wife) with math, getting her through two algebra classes. They were a sweet pair, who obviously cared for each other and for Frank. So the story, told by Gina, went like this:

Dan (Gina’s husband) likes dogs, but not as much as Gina. They had two dogs. One passed on of old age and that left DD, which stood for (as named by Dan) “Damned Dog.” Finally, in October, DD died of old age, too, and then they had no dogs. Dan told Frank he was relieved to not have any dogs, as he was tired of having to walk them every day.

By November, Frank started tormenting Dan with promises that he was going to get Dan a puppy for Christmas. Dan was adamant and told Frank not to get him a puppy.

About a week before Christmas, Frank called and told Gina to go out and get dog food and a water dish, a leash, a bone, and other puppy paraphernalia. He told her not to hide these items and to make sure Dan saw them.

On Christmas Eve, Frank shows up with a “puppy-sized” box. Dan is flipping out. Frank insists Dan open the present. Out comes a dog, all right, but a fake dog operated by batteries. The dog could bark! They described it as being made out of some brush-type material and when it barked, it would jump around.

Of course they ran the batteries out and didn’t replace them. Put the dog on a shelf.

The day Frank died, Gina said the dog’s batteries somehow came back to “life” and he started jumping around and barking. She said, “Right away, I knew that was a sign from Frank—‘I’m still barkin!’”

That would be Frank. He was quite a "barker."

The great part about this story is that even though this was a varied group of Catholics, African-Americans, a fair-sized contingent of Jewish people. and people with no affiliation, everyone laughed at the story and nodded their heads like, “Yeah, that was definitely Frank coming through!”



Cher