Frances Fauconniere Trank
Altruistic Mentor
by June Swords Bower

The joke goes something like this. If you’ve been to any state on the Eastern seaboard, you have met Fran Trank. And I swear, that is not too far from the truth. It seems that the Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon game was based on her life. So, why is that you may ask?

From the time Fran was a child growing up in Woodbury, she was always involved in being with people. She was a part of all the groups in school, church choir and being a good friend to whomever she met. Some people I know believed that she knew more people than God himself.

She was able to really apply those skills in the job market as she wandered up the corporate ladder into management. That is where who she really always has been was able to be of most use to so many people. In her work environment, she was responsible for staffing large numbers of employees. She would listen closely to each applicant and more often than not, she would hire someone who was perhaps a little rough around the edges with a plan to help smooth those off, always giving the individual a chance to improve and be who they were meant to be.

I had the priviliage on many occassions of witnessing her mentorship in practice. Ah, what a way she has with people. Always making them feel good about themselves when she knew that was the last thing that they really felt. She always inspired others by showing by example, leadership, great humor and kind loving interactions. A boss like no other boss! One that we all have wished for at one time or another, prayed for and if we were lucky enough to have one such as she, hoped it would last forever.

Because of having known Fran in their lives, many of her former staff members were able to take the skills and increased self-esteem and continue being successful in other jobs as they moved on. Yes, Fran has touched many, many people in so many ways.

As her mother and aunt aged and became ill, Fran became their caretaker for many years and gave their final days love, care and dignity. Within the past year her mother and aunt have passed and very suddenly she lost her husband on January 1, 2011. She was ready to bring him home and begin the caretaking all over again but that was not to be.

What she has done with so much love and altruism is to assist our family in the caretaking of our very medically complicated mother. She has offered to take a major weight from my remaining brother’s shouldars and provide the special care and attention she needs at this time of her life. We are all grateful to Fran in so many ways. I hope that by doing this with her time, at this time of her life, it will ease her own grief and pain from her very pronounced loses.

In all my life, and all the  bazillions of people I have met, Frances Fauconniere Trank has been the one person who has shown me more lessons about life and about who I am or could be than any other single person on this earth. What is it about her that does this so effortlessly? I don’t know....All I do know is that I am a better person for knowing her. Lessons are constantly there to be learned and the school bell has never been rung.