A Personal Remembrance (Denise Bertin-Epp)

Brighton Hospital is the 2nd oldest alcohol and drug treatment facility in the country and the first addiction center licensed in Michigan. Opening in the early 50’s, it has become a national leader in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Brighton has helped thousands change their lives and overcome their addictions.

John Franklin helped Brighton gain accreditation after leaving his addiction counseling position at Sangamon State. He spent nearly 30 years at Brighton, serving as counselor to literally thousands of people.

Denise Bertin-Epp, CEO of Brighton Hospital, said about John, “he has helped so many lives, both patients and staff. He listens and learns from everyone because he knows that everyone has a life story to tell. John teaches people about love and embraces all for their differences. He has advanced the field so much – created so much evidence based research that has made the field so much better.”

Moving to the Detroit area, John began working at University of Detroit – Mercy. Gaining his PhD and tenure, John helped establish the addiction treatment training program at Mercy, training multiple generations of addiction therapists.

Summarizing John Franklin’s career contributions at Brighton Hospital Denise said simply, “John is a gentle giant. He has taught his students how to change people’s lives.”

Three Vocations and a Shove (A Memorial)

It would be much easier if He simply IM’ed: “Sav sols. TTYL”.

One would think that there would be an app for that. However, the messages may not be instant and they don’t come in the telling. John Franklin has learned that they come in the listening.

Life can be a funny ol’ dog. Sometimes that ol’ dog runs in circles and other times he jumps on you giving you a big shove. That funny ol’ dog has been a lifelong companion to John Thomas Franklin.

John completed his seminary training in Rome in 1960. Coming straight to Granite City and St. E from Rome, he was assistant pastor at St. E until 1965. Many of us remember John from our grade school and teenage years. His next posting was Eastern IL Univ., where he found too many Catholic students to fit in the campus Newman Center. So, John celebrated Mass outside on the lawn of the Newman Center – on the main intersection in town - until the University president relented and allowed the student Newman Club to rent a room on campus for meetings and Mass.

Moving to Sangamon State, now U of I Springfield, John found an enthusiastic converted-Catholic university president who wanted a religious center in the heart of campus but insisted that it be non-denominational. John coordinated ten faith traditions, from Orthodox Judaic to Southern Baptist to create and run the very successful center. But John’s trusty ol’ companion was just getting started.

In 1972, John’s life turned toward his 2nd vocation: marriage and family life. John Franklin and Cheryl Cunningham married in 1972 and raised two children, Beth and Kevin. Psychologists by training, Cheryl eventually focused on HR work while John looked for a job nearby. After turning down several entreaties by the university to start an addiction counseling program, the ol’ dog jumped and knocked John over until he relented. John ended up developing many methods and practices in the field and the ol’ dog pushed him again, this time toward a PhD and tenure allowing John to train several generations of counselors. But that ol’ dog still hadn’t come full circle.

After he retired from teaching in 2007, the Episcopal Church accepted John’s Roman ordination and he began his 3rd vocation as an Episcopal priest in serving a small parish in Hamburg, Michigan. As one might expect of a person who has become an expert in integrating the many perspectives, talents, and skills gained over a lifetime, John held counseling sessions at his new parish in the evenings, continuing both his pastoral and counseling work.

With a career that has had taken many turns, we are so pleased that yet another arc of his life is returning to where it began as we welcome John Franklin back to St. Elizabeth’s Parish where he first started his ministry. Welcome home, Father Father Counselor Husband Doctor Professor Grandfather Father John. 

In July 2020, an extraordinary human being passed. His name was John Franklin. He was 85. I met John in 1961 when I was 7 at our parish grade school and he was 26 - a newly ordained minister from the farm fields of Illinois by way of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, serving as Assistant Pastor at our parish. As a first grader, I was impressed by the kindness of "Fr. John" who served the people of our parish for four years. I was not to meet him again until 45 years later - in 2010 - when I organized a reunion of the (then) grade and high school kids from our parish. These last ten years, John and I were great friends. John's last message to me, shared by his wife Cheryl from his hospice bed at home was .. "tell Michael that I love him".

I was blown away.

We say "I love you" to our spouses, our children, our parents, our grandparents. Even sometimes to close friends. But what this love that John had for me? I had seen him only once since 1965. It wasn't a romantic love, nor was it, exactly, a familial love. What was it? Where did it come from? And what did it share, if anything, with the unconditional and unyielding love which caregivers grace family members and friends who are battling a severe illness?

John was a farm boy and a Roman Catholic priest, an assistant pastor, and a campus minister. He became a clinical psychologist. He was a husband and a father. He was a university professor who taught generations of clinicians how to help those struggling with addiction. He was an Episcopal priest. He was a grandfather. I was fond of calling him Father Father Counselor Husband Doctor Professor Grandfather Father John. Beyond all of these things, John was kind. At his wake, his wife Cheryl commented that he didn't have a judgmental bone in his body.

When I reconnected with John in 2010, he wrote, “I’m still the same cockeyed optimist I was at age 26. I still have this naive belief in the goodness of people and their ability to love if they will just trust. I hoped I conveyed that then - because I believed it.”

John wrote about and practiced love. A love of nature. A love of struggle. A love of fun. A love of wondering. A love of questioning. A love of not knowing. A love of discovery. A love of humanity. A love of God. During his hospice, Cheryl said that he was so excited about finally learning what "came next".

John's definition of love: “an excitement over and a caring for everything which is good - and that is most things. Granted that’s an ideal and it sounds like an enormous and overwhelming job. We can only do what we can do. Notice, however, I am not talking about love as a fuzzy feeling; I am talking about love as action, as caring. The feeling will come."

John accepted with open arms and open heart, the alcoholic, the addict, the infirm, the ill, those unlike him, those struggling, those suffering, those falling, those failing, those who had faith in God by a different name or no name and those without any faith at all. He did not 'hate the sin but love the sinner', as so many preach and teach. Rather, he loved 'the sinner' all the more because he knew that it is impossible to hate the part but love the whole.

John accepted all. He was kind to all. He exemplified and practiced exactly the kind of love that those with a serious life challenges so desperately need from spouses, parents, siblings, friends, and neighbors.  Because in that very acceptance and kindness, in that acceptance and understanding of our faults and failings, the most noble and the most loving of all is to believe and accept that whatever or whoever we call God (or not). We were created imperfect and love is found and practiced in acceptance and kindness as we reach toward the unconditional and unyielding perfection of love, for we are all part of each other and each is a part of us.

I learned from John at ages seven and sixty-seven. He was kind and I loved him.