In Memory of Francis Gritzmacher

We were all caught off guard by Frank's passing. Yeah, we all knew it would happen some day, but not that day. In fact, there was some concern with Hospice over how long he had been there.

My last communication with him was on Facebook. We often interacted there when we were just saying hi and checking in. He commented on a post I had made about the XFL football games. I knew it would get his attention because we had been watching the Bills games and the playoffs every Sunday. We had just watched the Superbowl and I had said "What will we do now that football is over?" He said "Well, there's always the XFL." I had missed a couple of weeks of that, but would have joined him for a few games of XFL eventually.

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There's a week to go until the original date of the Frankquet II and it's pretty clear that we made the right call about postponing it.

We wondered if we were over-reacting, but with them frowning on groups larger than 10 people meeting now, it's good we acted.

We have no idea how many people might have attended, but we were anticipating more than 100 and possibly 150. The postponement might lower that number, or warmer weather and a bunch of people who have been pent up in self-quarantine and social distancing, might make it more. Who can tell?

Logistically, it was easy for us to postpone it. Imagine, though someone who was planning something like a wedding. Glad we're not in those shoes.

Some people put flowers on a grave and talk to the headstone.

I make a website and write blog posts...

We all deal in our own ways!

Some people might be wondering what a Franquet is, or what is Team Frank, or even about Friendsgiving.

Frank had an endearing quality that let him make and keep friends, many lifelong. He always enjoyed socializing with them. Going places, doing things as a group. Just hanging out together. At some point they came up with the idea of a group celebration near Thanksgiving. It was separate from family celebrations, so it was called Friendsgiving. I doubt they invented the term, I've heard other people use it more lately, but Frank's friends were the first people I heard using it. The culmination was the 2019 Friendsgiving where Frank was joined at Hospice by many of his friends and family. It was a special moment.

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