Monday, July 8, 2024
I only found out about Frannces' passing a few days ago, in July of 2024. My condolences to Frances' brother Edward (Eddie) and her brother Michael and his wife Joanne, her nieces Denise and Martese, and cousins George and Robert.
I hadn't seen Frances in years, but was a friend and fellow NYS employee as well as my twin sister Denise. A bunch of us NYS employees would go out to eat together for lunch or dinner, and attend other activities together, for years, when we were younger, and when I was still single.
I remember summers when Frances would have us enter the contest for picnics on the quadrangle at the U of R where contestants had to come up with a theme for their picnic, and the type of outfits they would wear. I remember one year we all went Hawaiian.
Frances let me stay over on a coach in her living room if there were snowstorms, so I didn't have to drive home to Webster, I eventually got an apartment in the area so I was closer to work.
I remember the horrible fire that Frances was somewhere around 1984, where she went back to not only look for her cats, but went through fire to save another NYS employee that was renting one of the upstairs apartment in the house on Mt. Hope Avenue owned by the U of R. What complicated evacuation in the fire were the deadbolt locks which needed a key to open up the door to get out getting out in the fire was the dead bolt locks the U of R installed on every tenant's door in the divided up house which actually required a key to open to get out. This young woman NYS employee who lived in one of the apartments above her, was trying to hastily get out of her apartment due to flames chasing behind her as she ran down the staircase to the door, but she had no deadbolt key. She screamed for help because she was trapped. Frances who had initially taken an axe to her door to get out, went through flames to get to this young woman who was trapped. Frances beat down the window and broke the glass with her bare hands, and pulled this young woman out.to safety. The young man in the other upstairs apartment near the front of the house, was awoken by heavy smoke. He had to jump from his second story window into the bushes to break his fall. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, lived in annexed living quarters on the first floor, but was at work when the fire occurred.
As a result of Frances' efforts of saving this young woman by going through fire and beating down the glass on the door to be able to pull her out, she sustained extensive burns and great loss of blood. She was taken to the U of R Medical Center for trauma .and the medical staff had to sew up arteries and transfuse her, and also treat her severe burns. A group of us sat in the waiting room, waiting and praying that she would make it. We were relieved when Frances survived, and after started the long recovery of her extensive burns in the Burns Unit at the U of R Medical Center and continued on to outpatient basis. I am so glad that Frances lived and had all these past years to live her life.
May you Rest in Peace, Frances!
