I was in no shape at the time to write anything else about him or the situation that my sister Doris suddenly found herself in.
However, to not say something more about the man would be a great disservice to him.
First of all, he was a fantastic hubby to my sis (he ironed quilting fabric for her!!!). From what I could tell in the short time that I knew him, he was a great dad to his two daughters. He was a very proud Grandpa and, as a witness in front of God, he was a wonderful uncle to Robby and Caleb.
Sadly, after going back thru photos looking for various situations where I knew he was around, I realized that we didn't have many photos of him. Turns out that at birthday parties for the boys, while he was always there, he was usually in the background of photos.
Family photos where a whole pile of the extended Schmitz family were together, he tends to be in the back row with Doris.
That just speaks to his unassuming, quiet and gentle spirit and being perfectly happy NOT being the center of attention.
He was a great guy and will live on in memories as just that!
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| On my sisters wedding day. Frank with his mom, Harriet (sorry if the spelling is wrong!). |
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| One of our family nights here at our house. The boys, along with cousins Sam and Jonah, were out in the back yard rolling down the hill. |
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| This was an early in the relationship Thanksgiving out at my brothers house in Dexter Iowa. It's a bit fuzzy because... you guessed it, Doris and Frank were in the back row and so once I blew the photo up a bit, it got a bit fuzzy. |
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| Uncle Frank and Uncle Derek trading stories. |
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| I believe this was back in early 2008 and it was taken at the Chuck E. Cheese. |
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| This was Robby's 5th birthday party. We had a Wii bowling tournament. This is Frank and my niece Leah competing in a wicked battle! |
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| Taken at the 2010 Jammin' For Jesus at our worship center, Lutheran Church of the Cross. I was playing in one of the bands that day so Frank and Doris came out to witness (get it? Bad joke, I know...) They had face painters there and Robby got painted up like a tiger and was climbing all over his Uncle Frank that day! I'm not sure how enjoyed it more but Rob got a little giddy when he saw this picture! |
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| Great photo of Frank's personality... |
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| This was taken at the Dwight Yoakam concert last July and is my favorite picture of him! I much enjoyed having him there as he played mandolin, banjo, and guitar. I would glance over at him after a good guitar solo and he'd have that little sly grin on his face that I'll never forget. |
Back in June of 2007, Frank took Doris to see his favorite singer/songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids.
In January, prior to Frank falling ill, Gordon announced tour dates and March 21st saw him returning to the Paramount Theater. Doris suggested in an email to me earlier in the week that we should maybe road trip to the show in honor of Frank, so we did just that.
It was a great show, a great trip and an overall great time. We told stories, laughed, cried and peeled thru piles & piles of kleenex. I hope my sister enjoyed at least 1/10th as much as I did.
As another example of the strange dichotomy of life, I wish that Frank was able to go along with us, however, if he were still here, I probably wouldn't have been along and I wouldn't trade that time Friday night with my sister for anything.
Life is indeed strange...
I apologize for the disjointed post... I have tons of stuff that I want to say but when I sat down to write the post, I found myself completely clueless on how to say it.
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