My memories of Francie are too numerous to list! She has been a part of my professional and personal life for over forty years and in my heart it seems since we first looked into each other’s eyes one day after school when Rick & I stopped by to meet her & plan to car pool with her as she reentered the teaching profession the next semester at Kennedy where I was already assigned! I was thrilled to have a new friend to introduce to the faculty & I knew right away what a star she was going to be! When I am right I am right! 

We were fast friends and she fit like a glove into the faculty community and the students couldn’t wait to have this hip young and pretties thinking true teacher with a heart and mind to match rreach them in a whole new and exciting way ! And did she ever! No one had seen anyone like Gr

Francie before! Ideas jumped out of her brain like popcorn! She was fun innovative and yet practical ! No longer were Special Needs Kids going to be left in the corner of the lunchrooms eating by themselves and mocked by the mainstream students! Now they were in the student council and on the track team! Yes the took Drama as well and worked in the main office and in the Library 

Lunchroom eating alone or in separate tables !they we also attending Prom ( one of my happiest memories) and selling tickets for Homecomings) Francie and Marta and soon Carol  were constant companions with the Drama programs and my student Council Activities Drives Competition or whatever function we pursued! They were the BEST class sponsors I could ask for & and the most wonderful friends) besides being the most dedicated mothers & teachers and amazing women and human beings around. Francies reputation spread to other districts as well! Her children as mine attended JefCo schools and she was well lauded there as an outstanding mother parent volunteer and community activivist! We shared neighbors who were in awe of her constant community service and activism for nature civil rights and the support of special needs children!

Francie, like my husband & myself was especially sensitive to the deaf and the alzheimers communities and I will always do what I can to continue my support in her memory to those causes! She was the bravest & themostloyal& honest of friends who felt more pain for me than I sometimes felt for myself when she thought I had been betrayed & she cried when she bravely tried to tell me so! But it was alright . I knew a vicious roumor from a jealous woman from the truth! Thank you Francie Thank you for caring so much & Thinkinking I deserved  more!   Maybe I did in your eyes at least

I will always love you dear Friend!

Ali, Robby, and Jamie,

Our sincere condolences-your mom was a beautiful person ❤️

John and Robin Weikel 

Robbie, we are sorry for your loss.

The Duru Family.

Now, some of what I'll reminisce may seem derogatory, but it’s not. When my brothers and I were late teens/early twenties, we were not making our parents comfortable with our perceived (lack of) progress towards self-sustainability, etc. Francie was like a third parent, only that she would get on our cases mercilessly while the ‘rents usually held back, somewhat. Being in my early 20's, I would refer to her as my "35-year-old younger sister."

Then (I think it was the divorce) it was like her brain snapped. For many months, perhaps longer, it was embarrassing to go out in public with her. She’d throw food up in the air at restaurants and comment loudly without even a modicum of restraint about people who looked weirder than we.

During the transition period between a prematurely middle-aged college student to a regular college student she had a memorable, um, slip. Well, I don't think it (the 'slip) was intentional on her part. I was visiting / hanging out at the parent's house in Aspen. Francie was off at a birthday party elsewhere in town. The phone rang. "Jay ..." (giggle giggle) "... what's it like to be ..." (giggle) "... stoned?"

"I think you already know," I answered.

She had eaten a piece (or two) of the birthday cake. "There are some green flecks in it. I'm leaving right now and will bring a piece home for you." I looked forward to it. A half-hour later she completed the walk home. She had eaten most of my piece of cake, but a few crumbs remained. I scrutinized them, seeing several parsley-like green bits.

For many hours afterwards I sat in the living room, mostly astonished as she talked incessantly. Often she rolled on the floor, laughing, off the couch, hopping back up on it, then more rolling. And more laughing. I am fairly sure she hasn't indulged in illegal substances since (or rarely) but she certainly did enjoy that one experience.

Nov. 2017 status -- she was diagnosed with "Alzhie" (her nick-name for her ¿friend? Alzheimer's) for perhaps 2 and a half years now.  She is soldier-ing through it mostly like a trooper, keeping a positive outlook on her life, and as best she (& Rick) can, rolling with whatever punches and sometimes punching back at the rolls.