March 27th, 1946, I wasn’t alive then but one great woman was; that women would come to influence my life beyond any figment of imagination. This woman fought torment and life’s major bumps in the road from day one. The first major bump in her life was her mother’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer. For years she watched her mom get radioactive rods placed inside her to try and kill the cancer, but at age 13 this women experienced her mother’s death. Throughout the radiation treatments all the way up to her mother’s death, she was left to cook, clean, and care for the household at such a young age, when a person of her age should be focused on so many other things like school, friends, and the normal life of a teenager, but instead she got to become age 20 even though she was 13.

Soon after her mothers death came another bump in her life, her father remarried that is what put her over the cliff, so she decided it was time to move on. Her father’s remarriage and her mothers agonizing cancer treatment and death drove her to leave and get married at age 16. Soon after that she encountered another bump, this one caused by her school of whom expelled her because she was married, saying they didn’t want her influencing others to do what she did. So the woman, who if you talked to you would think she had a Ph.D when really she never graduated high school not by choice but by force.

Even though that all happened to her she was still as strong as ever, by age 23 she had 4 children, which took a large toll on her body. Yet she raised her children to be successful, and to understand really how the world works. She taught them more than any school possibly could.

Two bumps in her life came after her children had all began their own lives. These bumps where the death of her brother, and the death of her sister and my grandmother; her brother died of a allergic reaction, and soon after that her sister of lung cancer, those bumps really struck her hard leaving deep wounds emotionally. Even though that happened she still was as lively as ever.

Then fourteen years ago she was diagnosed with cancer, doctors telling her she had a year, but this strong woman fought it out for fourteen years, even beating it a few times so she thought, it came back but she kept fighting.

Now that I have given you the life of this fantastic woman, I have to say why I thank her. She is thanked by me because; she was one woman you could always turn to for advice, a shoulder to cry on, a dessert from out of this world, a friendly conversation, or just a good old life lesson. This woman had it all, I came to her on many occasions for advice, but I came to her more just to talk and have a pastry of some sort. She would always offer food when I came; although a better way to put it is she would always give me food cause she would talk you into it even if you said no a 100 times.

There is one time in her and mines life that I will remember forever, and this time was her sister and my grandmother’s death. I spent days after my grandmother’s death thinking about my “nonnie’ reflecting on my life with her, in that time of reflecting I decided to write a letter to her, that I subsequently placed in her casket with her. So on the day of her funeral the pastor approached me and said “I read your letter would you read it in front of everyone as the eulogy”, and I just kind of stood their thinking what should I do. That was when Franci told me “just do it, you love her and she loves you so reflect to everyone the happy times, who cares what they say”. So I did read this letter to everyone and I do believe that everyone was impressed and happy to hear all the good things about Lori, by few, nonnie by most.

You may ask why has this women affected you so much, but unless you where living my life it may be hard to explain or even understand. She was the lady you would turn to when no one else was willing to talk about it. Additionally, your problem always turned out to be no big deal as she would always make a joke out of it. Yes that may seem rude but no really it was never rude, she just wanted to show you that life would be harder and that was just a pebble in a life full of boulders. Although until this fateful day a few weeks ago I would have never know about all of her life challenges because she didn’t speak of them because as she would say she was an “Old Daigo” and that the past was the past so why talk about it. That would be another thing that makes me thankful for her she taught me that dwelling on the past is useless because you can’t change something that already happened.

The previous paragraph stated that I didn’t know those things about her till a few weeks ago. The reason I didn’t know these things is because this wonderful women gave her last breath, but still Franci gave that last breath fighting, she was one who would never give up. Aunt Franci I love you and I thank you. Rest In Peace Aunt Franci (March 15, 2010)