Happy Birthday Chris - on Christmas !

JULIE ANN FRANK

Judith Espinosa - Expo New Mexico

Thursday, November 22, 2007 Around New Mexico Albuquerque


Gov. Names Expo Director Judith M. Espinosa, who has been serving as Lt. Gov. Diane Denish's chief of staff, is the new director of Expo New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson announced the appointment Wednesday. Espinosa replaces Fred Peralta, who is retiring. "Expo New Mexico is a jewel for the state drawing thousands of people to Albuquerque each year," Richardson said in a news release. "I believe Judith will bring her extensive public service experience to the task and partner with our commission to make Expo New Mexico even better for our citizens." Expo New Mexico, situated on 236 acres in the heart of Albuquerque, is home to the New Mexico State Fair, the Downs at Albuquerque racetrack and casino and Tingley Coliseum. Espinosa was environment secretary under Gov. Bruce King and transportation secretary under Gov. Toney Anaya. She also has been director of the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute at the University of New Mexico, where she received a bachelor's degree in nursing and a juris doctorate.

AJ DOMME DEPLOYMENT

Hello everyone:
Susie, Lauren, Alexis and Sarah and I spent this past weekend at San Antonio and also at Ft. Hood Texas saying our family goodbyes to our son AJ. Today was his 22nd birthday and his unit was notified today that they would all be leaving by next Tuesday for Iraq. I must confess that saying goodbye for 15 months was a very difficult thing to do but we were absolutely completely impressed with all that we saw and felt there at Ft. Hood. AJ is in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, which is a huge Army group (8,000 plus troops). They specialize in the Army Abrams Tank, Bradley fighting machine and armored Hum V’s, plus rocket launching Bradley type track machines and many other very modern fighting troop carriers and armored equipment. They are first setting up in Kuwait and after about a month will head north to Baghdad and all the way up to the area along the Syrian border and the nasty areas north of Baghdad.
He’s very proud of what he’s doing and has turned into a powerful, spirited, and highly motivated young man. We are super proud of him and what he’s doing.
Susie and I hope you keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Caryle Grille Restaurant Shirlington, Virginia

Phyllis , Cathy, and John















Phyllis , Marsha , Dave, Cathy, Luis, and John

Julie Yarasheski Frank-Craig Domme

It was twenty nine years ago a few weeks back when the Lucky 7 softball team took a break from the game we loved so much to spend an evening at the Lomas Bowl. We occupied a few lanes and were watching the Cowboys, drinking beers and being our usual rowdy selves with very little regard for anyone around us. Our waitress was this beautiful young lady who was giving us her best attention and service and trying not to be too offended by the raucous group, but all along there was just something about her that kept grabbing my attention. After about a half a dozen beers into the evening I finally got her attention and using one of my favorite pick up lines I asked her in a probably slurred but serious manner, "sssayyy ... donnn I know you?" As she set down the next round of beers and shooters her response was quick and to the point. "NO!" I can't remember how I survived that answer but my persistence had paid off and with her phone number in hand we would eventually start dating and in less than 90 days we would be married. The fact of the matter turned out to be that I actually did know her, sort of, what I knew was her sister Julie from a long time before. One of the many memorable gals in the class of 66, a real beauty, and the heart throb of at least three of my best friends. Often times as we cruzed the streets of Qtown back in those days, periodically I would find myself in a car where all the guys in the car were in love with Julie except me. As fate would have it, I would later learn to love her dearly as my sister, a confidant, and a roll model for my children.
As I began the task of calming down and learning how to be a husband, father, brother in law, and Stanley's son in law, my own brother Father Ed was learning how to be a parish priest in a small town in Illinois. Paul and Gail Yarasheski had a son and a daughter, Dave and Judy had two daughters, Katie and Gene Valencia had two sons and Susie and I had two beautiful little girls to show for four years of marriage, but John and Julie had none. One day Fr. Ed was confronted by a member of his parish staff who said her daughter was pregnant at 16 and would carry the baby to term but that they wished to have the baby adopted by a good Catholic couple and did he know anyone who might be interested. A few months later in what he still describes to this day as one of the most traumatic, emotional, and spiritual moments of his life as a priest, he witnessed this young girl hand that beautiful baby boy over to John and Julie Frank. They would take him home, name him John lll, raise him, nurture him and give him all the special attention he needed. Three months ago he graduated from Virginia Tech and Julie was able to attend the graduation even though she was terribly weakened from all the surgeries and the Chemo. A couple of years after the first adoption another lady approached my brother with the exact same scenario and not long later John and Julie were in the exact same situation again, only this time they were handed a gorgeous little baby girl. They named her Jeannine and she is now a senior at Old Dominion.
Of all the men I've known and dealt with in my life, Julies husband John is without a doubt one of the true roll models and hero's I know. He is first and foremost a devout Catholic and he has instilled our religion into his life and that of his children. He is a retired Navy Captain and was the commanding officer of the USS Darter, the last of the diesel powered attack submarines which in and of itself was an incredible accomplishment. He read my daughter Sarah her oath of office at the West Point graduation ceremony which was as awesome an event as I've ever been to. There were forty thousand people in attendance, thousands of Army personnel there in their beautiful class A uniforms, President Bush gave the commencement, General Schwortzcoff gave my daughter a big handshake, there were fantastic parades and the graduation was unbelievable. The one thing that seems to stick out in my mind was how impressive John looked in his brilliant Navy full dress white uniform and how all those Army people would snap to attention as they got near him. He professed to be flattered by the honor of giving the oath, but we in fact were flattered by their attendance.visited the Franks a number of times on our trips back east a number of years ago. They have a beautiful home in Annandale Va. and a summer farm in the hills of Virginia about 90 miles from DC. There sits a beautiful little home on 60 some odd acres and was built over a hundred years ago. Julie and John loved to go there and work on the house and the land every weekend they could manage. It wasn't hard for me to understand why after having visited it for the first time. Julie will be buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in about a month, but her heart is at their farm.
She would come home to Albuquerque as often as she could and was always there when this family of ours was going through some crisis or another. She'd stay with her mother and then come up to Farmington and spend time with all of us. She was here when I had my neck thing, and was a God send when our Anna Marie died. I'm pretty sure the only thing she did in life was give and give and give some more.
She loved to cook and since I love to eat I suppose I won't have any trouble remembering all of those wonderful Christmas dinners at Babchies house or here in Farmington and at their house and the farm. She coined the phrase "dip don't scoop" and that put a bit of a crimp in my style, but we all learned not to scoop when Julie was around. She had a way of standing in the kitchens like no other person I've ever known. She would raise her right foot and press it against the inside of her left thigh. I know it sounds weird and you might wonder how anyone could do that and be comfortable and still not fall over. She never did, she never fell doing anything. She always stood straight in life except for the right foot thing.
As her illness came on and began to progress we had the solace in knowing that our Alexis was there in DC and always going over to the Franks house to visit and be a helping hand. Alexie had gone to live with John and Julie after she graduated from Eastern NM. She got in a Masters degree program at George Washington University and John and Julie insisted that she stay at their house which is only a few miles from the GW campus. Both John lll, and Jeannine were away at their universities and since the Franks had a rather large empty nest this turned out to be a God send for us and was AOK with the Franks. It surely put our minds at easy to know that this wonderful couple was keeping a close watch on our Alexis and that even though she was far far away, she was in very good company and hands. She made it through a difficult program and decided to stay there in DC and teach special ed in the Richmond school district for a couple of years. (They pay a little better then our NM districts) Unfortunately about eight months ago things began to change and Julie was getting sick. Diagnosis kept coming in that there was something wrong and much as we hoped and prayed that things would change and get better they never did. It becomes the focal thought of our lives, you wake up thinking about her and you go to sleep with her on the mind. You wish it were different and not so but every conversation and phone call confirms that it is so. You try to avoid thinking about consequences and things that you've heard about the chances and the likely outcome. All to no avail, days and weeks and months pass by and everything is only worse.
A few months ago Susie, Katie, Lauren and Babchie (Grandma/polish) Yarasheski headed off across country to visit Julie and John. They were gone for two weeks and had a wonderful visit and Julie was able to be with her mother for awhile. Very few things on this planet are as difficult as that goodbye was between mother and daughter and sisters. The writing was on the wall, scribbled in black for everyone to see. It's a very long road from DC to Qtown when your 92 and you know what you know. This wife of mine and these sisters of mine have one of the most resilient and powerful mothers of all time. She's amazed me from those earliest days. Not only was she married to Stanley (enough said) but she's insisted on staying in her home that she moved into a few years before I was even born. She said the reason was because home is where her doctors are, but she's outlived a half a dozen of them. Home is where her friends are but all but one of them are gone now too. I personally think it's because it's the place where all the memories are of that big and wonderful family she created and took care of. When it comes to cooking and cleaning and raising and growing and loving and showing, Babchie is the dean. If you wanted the definition of mother in real form I'd simply say to go to the third house from the corner on Haines Northeast.
A few weeks ago things turned for the worse. Julie was allowed to go home from the hospital and the Hospice people arrived and did what they do to make a patient comfortable. One evening a Hospice Doctor arrived and he stayed with the family for over two hours. The man was keenly aware of the difficult situation and my daughter said he was one of the finest and most caring men she's ever been with. He guided and consoled and when he finally left, things had been said by all that needed to be said in a time like that. As the evening settled in Julie asked that she be helped up to her bedroom and that she wanted to sleep in her bed. For the longest time she had slept on another bed in another room or in a chair where she felt most comfortable. So on that Friday night she slept in her bed with her husband by her side. The next day was Saturday and she was very exhausted from not eating or drinking for days and being very sick. Late in the afternoon with her husband whispering his love for her into her ear, her son John, her daughter Jeannine, and Alexis holding her hands, all very close by her side, she passed away from us.

July 2006