Julia left us laughing
Friar Works Co-Director Colleen Cushard
I love my job!
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Usually when I got a call from Julia, I would hang up afterwards laughing and shaking my head. One of our longtime supporters, she was a feisty and funny 85 year old woman. We’d become friends over the phone and talked often about meeting in person. She once told me that she could get away with saying anything now that she was older because people expect that from old people.
Julia was very proud of her grandson who had joined the friars a few years back. He was a quiet and unassuming young man. Although it had been a wonderful experience for him, he decided that he needed to step back and figure some things out. He left the friars with the door open for his return. This did not change my relationship with Julia. We still talked about once a month. I think our humor was similar, and we laughed easily and frequently when we spoke.
Her last call to me was different. Julia told me that she found out just days earlier that she had pancreatic cancer and in her words “did not have much time left on this earth”. Although in pain, she was at peace and in good spirits and still very funny. I was about ready to fall apart when she told me that she had to console the doctor because he was so sad to have to tell her how just how sick she was. She felt sorry for him. Really?
She went on to say: “I want to give one more gift as my legacy… so to speak”. I wondered how in the world she could be thinking about this with everything she was going through. She gave me her credit card and made a significant gift. She seemed to be happy to check something off the list of things she still wanted to do before she died. She asked me with a giggle if I would ask Fr. Mark to pray for her too because he was so holy that he might have more pull than us.
I told her that we would all pray for her peaceful and happy passing which we did daily. That was our last conversation. Julia passed away less than two weeks later. I think about her a lot and still pray for this wonderful Franciscan friend all the time.
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If you would like to speak with Colleen about how you can give a gift to the Franciscans, contact her at: shrine@franciscan.org
Posted in: Estate Planning, Newsletter, Prayer, Support the Friars
