Dr. Frank Bredice Memorial Mass

so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so ladies and gentlemen you are wonderful to be here to remember your friend your colleague husband father father-in-law brother-in-law and so now i'd like to invite sophia his beautiful daughter to lead us off good morning gene and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here or for those of you tuning in and for just the overwhelming outpour of support we have received it truly means the world last time i was in a room with this many people who loved and adored my dad was probably for gina and his wedding most of you are asking about their new baby bella it was a magical day for so many reasons i had already moved to north carolina and i remember being overjoyed that i had returned to a place surrounded by so many people who knew how truly amazing my dad was i grew up being the frank rodich's daughter you all know what this means no matter where we were or where we went we were greeted by someone whose life dad had positively influenced or impacted i inherited the blessings or curses esperichi's are known for cars i think the maddest he ever was at me was when he told me to hold the jumbo-sized coca-cola styrofoam cup from sharkey's in my hands rather than jamming it into the back of his new m5 but he eventually got over it taking me to racing school and even lending me the skyliner for a party in high school that was pretty fun food doing some serious damage at the brazilian steakhouse he uh he took my first boyfriend there in high school to see if he could keep up which he couldn't movies starting me off early like age four with braveheart and living with the consequences of introducing me to the mummy on a hawaii vacation and being a good sport staying up with me until like 5am watching it over and over and over and over again and even taking me to see a teen flick called a walk to remember and bawling his eyes out in the theater and athletics he dropped me off at ucla throwing camp and straight up threatened the football team who was checking us in to look out for me and reminded them that he'd be the one to pick me up at the end of the week they checked up on me daily the summer going into my senior year of high school i lived with him and worked at the office it was one of the best summers of my life sometimes i would make it to the gym with him in the morning before we headed to work i would see him in his true element i got to know many of you his dearest friends and see what a gifted healer and diagnostician he really was we'd go out to dinner or grill some steaks watch a movie and enjoy polishing off our individual pints of ice cream every night i'm grateful for the precious time i had with him not many people get as an amazing quality time as i did with my dad especially over the last two years it was like that summer going into senior year all over again my dad taught me so much to be fearless to live life to the fullest to be kind and to help others whenever i can i consider myself the luckiest daughter in the world it's truly extraordinary how much of my identity has been and will continue to be shaped by my dad the world is so much better off having known him thank you all so much for being here now mr brian cranston oh well in preparing for this i realized how difficult it was to accurately and give a worthy tribute to to a person in the few minutes that i have so i won't try to attempt to wrap up frank's life in the time it takes to soft boil an egg instead i want to just give you a sense of how i saw the man the human being and when i first met frank it wasn't in his chiropractic office it was in a grade school gym our daughters are the same age and we're teammates on a girls basketball team and there he was this huge frame of a man tanned intimidating i can envision the italian pepper necklace from the 80s bouncing off his hairy chest and he wouldn't he wouldn't sit to watch the games instead he would stalk the sidelines like a like a character from a scorsese movie and i thought who the hell is that uh i was told it was sophia's dad and that he was a chiropractor and i'll be honest it did cross my mind that this could be one of those guys who could do both he could break you into pieces and then he could also put you back together eventually i i got over how intimidating he was and began a doctor-patient relationship that grew into a friendship um when i think of frank i see him i see him looking at me with that mischievous glint in his eyes and i hear him saying you know me i don't like the gossip and then he would proceed to gossip about all the famous people he knew and worked with he'd say things like you know me i don't care about celebrity so it doesn't affect me what these people do like people like gwen stefani and and margaret it doesn't affect me hector elizondo david hasselhoff everybody here um at times sitting in his waiting room waiting for my appointment and looking around at all the familiar faces it felt like i was at an audition frank was a student athlete at usc not a trojan he was an owl at southern connecticut he was a champion at the hammer throw as most of you know he had valid aspirations to be a member of the u.s team in the 1972 olympics but his journey was derailed by a misdiagnosis of a lower back injury and that experience i imagined it informed his next move so with his his athletic career over he he chose chiropractics he wanted to further his education so he thought about first going to chicago but then he realized no chicago like connecticut has winter and so he moved out to los angeles and graduated from with honors from the los angeles college of chiropractics in 1980 and you may not know this but frank's practice began with the bodybuilders that he knew and met in the gym one of them was a great stunt woman named spice williams who i also happen to have worked with and spice began recommending frank's skills to other professionals um especially the stunt professionals that she knew and i thought well i mean if there's any department that needs a chiropractor it would be it would be the stunts they recommended him to other actors and so on and thus began a a big and professional business for for the last decades and i'm i'm really glad he did because i i had such sciatica if you have a moment let me tell you about this uh the old guy talking about their health okay um but i could barely stand and frank would point to the hallway as you know and he'd say let me see you walk away and i do so in discomfort and he'd reply okay i know what to do and he would then proceed to punish me on that damn table of his the pain uh but he'd fix me and it was it was it was pretty remarkable uh frank not only used his massive hands to adjust what my body needed but he used his mind too he helped me readjust the way i thought about nutrition and exercise and i think that's why everybody loved frank that's why we're here today to thank him for his gift for all of us he was a big man with a big heart after he got his diagnosis and knew his life was going to be shortened he closed his practice and that was a tough one but even then whenever my wife robin and i had an ache we would call frank just to get advice but he would then insist on coming over to our house and he would adjust us on our sofa he actually said he felt good about it and he swore that doing it helped him you know focus on something other than his own uh physical issues and we kept in touch with him throughout his ordeal robin and i were grateful to be able to visit him in north carolina and i would call him every few weeks the last time i called him was a week before he passed i was really truly affected by his acceptance of his plight he was very open to talking about it it was cathartic for him he said and but there was one part of the process that he wasn't okay with and that was the thing he couldn't reconcile and that was that he would so so greatly miss gina and sophia and also his friends and he said when he thinks of that that's when he feels that he was he was robbed and i told him i understood and that years ago i had heard a quote and i can't attribute it to any writer but i will never forget this and i recited it back to him and it goes it says when a friend dies you lose a friend but when you die you lose all your friends and he said that's pretty much how it feels now i know that when i walk away from this podium frank will be watching me scrutinizing me making his assessment and he'll be thinking to himself i know what to do but i've always known what he was doing he was looking out for me so thank you my friend rest now and god bless well you rated it in time have this time of prayer for frank that'd be a yes good for you you're good to be here and i invite you to please stand and our choir is going to kick us off in song [Music] um [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit may the grace and peace of our lord jesus christ the love of god and the communion of the holy spirit be with you let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries i confess to almighty god and to you my brothers and sisters that i've greatly sinned in my thoughts and of my words and what i have done and in what i have failed to do through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault therefore i ask blessed mary of her virgin all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the lord our god may almighty god have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life yes [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] let us pray oh god who have set a limit to this present life so as to open up an entry into eternity we humbly beseech you that by the grace of your mercy you may command the name of your servant frank to be inscribed in the book of life through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit god forever and ever amen now i invite you to please be seated now i'd like to invite dr george sanders who is the great grandson of the star of the golden screen of decades ago good morning i've been asked read from the book of wisdom chapter 4 verses 7 through 15. the just man though he die early shall be at rest for the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time nor can it be measured in terms of years rather understanding is the hoary crown for men and an unsullied life the attainment of old age he who pleased god was loved he who lived among sinners was transported snatched away lest wickedness pervert his mind or deceit beguiles his soul for the witchery of paltry things obscures what is right and the world of desire transforms the innocent mind having become perfect in a short while he reached the fullness of a long career for his soul was pleasing to the lord therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness but the people saw and did not understand nor do they take this into account because grace and mercy are with his holy ones and his care is with his elect this is the word of the lord [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] sure [Music] [Music] well that was a great setup first off sophia and gina and and all this friends here have so much love for him and so much love for you guys because he he was so loved by everyone so i'm honored to be here and speak a reading from the second letter of paul to the corinthians brothers and sisters knowing that the one who raised the lord jesus will raise us all with jesus and place us with you in his presence everything indeed is for you so that grace bestowed us an abundance on more and more people because thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of god therefore we are not discouraged rather although our outer self is wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day for this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen for what is seeing a strange story of what but what is unseen as internal for what we know for what we know that is unearthly dwelling a tent should be destroyed we have a building from god a dwelling not made with hands internal and in heaven the word of the lord is [Music] jesus [Music] alone but on every word that comes from [Music] jesus [Music] the lord be with you a reading from the holy gospel according to john jesus told his disciples the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified amen amen i say to you unless a grain of wheat falls the ground and dies it remains just a grain of wheat but if it dies it produces much fruit whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life whoever serves me must follow me and where i am there also will my servant be the father will honor whoever serves me i am troubled now yet what should i say father save me from this hour but it was for this purpose i came to this hour father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven i will glorify it and will glorify it again the gospel of the lord my sorrow to all of you who come to remember frank and to pray for him he was a wonderful lovely man but i would like to begin with a couple of recognitions and so the first our choir of saint francis de sales that prank esteem so very much and all of them could have like you could have easily been surfing off of malibu from this beautiful morning or heading up to do a little weekend skiing at mammoth or maybe a little water skiing at lake arrowhead and instead the choir responded to gina's invitation and you responded to the prompting of god almighty in your heart no i should be here to sing for this man who used to be part of francis de sales parish i should be here to pray for my friend who spent so many years here and so to miss janine wagner gallardo our director of music janine thank you very much and to mr steve park our organist thank you very much and we have now ms laurie stinson from saint cyril of jerusalem choir that's our neighboring parish to the west and so when ms stinson informed mr beck the choir director of saint cyril's that she was going to come and sing with saint francis sales choir this morning what was his reply heads have rolled for less than that so we shall have to put in a good word but i'm happy lori that you're here and so lori is going to be soon appearing on broadway with the new version of west side story and then we have our own michael connor who is part of our choir every sunday who will now do justice to one when it comes time i will introduce it and michael thank you very much and so michael is soon to head off to be on stage at carnegie hall and was it not our blessed lord that said you need to go out two by two so michael cannot go to the big apple all by himself michael you need to take all of us with you we'll find something to do patricia my sorrow to you and how good you are to be here and help to comfort and console your lovely daughter sophia and so you and frank maintained a wonderful friendship over these years and so how good you are patricia to be here and so to michael his son-in-law my sorrow to you and sophia my sorrow and tears go to you over the loss of your dad and most of all dear gina what can i say your frank was a wonderful man and he adored you how can i say such a thing because he told me and so that's the way i would like to now say it you you will hear different from of different facets of frank's life from the five speakers it will have this morning and so i would like to zero in on that one which was which is if you can understand closest to my heart he was a man who loved his catholic faith and who practiced his catholic faith and when it was even though we had arranged the date and time of this mass weeks ago it was just yesterday that la county lifted its ban on masks we're born in door and when i heard that on the news and saw the newspaper i thought frank you pulled it off just in time for your memorial mass because while frank and i had met several years ago and you know that was when everything was just you know the routine life that we had and then when life began to go south 20 almost exactly 24 months ago here in the city of los angeles the county of la then there came the question so what are we going to do well i'll tell you what i did we i kind of sort of maybe in a little way kept things going and so frank was most appreciative of that and so that was the way that we our relationship really intensified because if you will during those 11 weeks when it was it were driven underground we would gather for the celebration of the most holy eucharist for mass and frank would be here day after day after day without fail should there be a day that frank was not here i knew he would not be because he told me the previous day that i now i have a doctor's appointment at ucla i won't be able to get to mass this morning i said frank don't worry about it you got to do what you got to do he said i'll miss you and i said boy i will miss you too but we'll see each other the day after tomorrow and so it would come to pass so whether it would be those 11 weeks inside or those many months outside there was frank at daily mass and at sunday mass and god bless him so what do i draw from that he cherished his catholic faith but he cherished the gift of the most holy eucharist because he knew that when it was that he would be given that sacred host he knew that he was being given the very life of heaven yes that was given to him at his baptism and certainly strengthened with the gift of confirmation but it would now that gift of grace that he received it would be nurtured and nourished every time he would receive it now since frank was an italian is it okay i hope if i mention a couple of the things that i treasure the most about the italian people when you were born into an italian family you belong and you know that and certainly you are loved and you are treasured and you are esteemed and sunday night dinner is sacrosanct in an italian home what does it do well the parallel is when you were born into that family you received life but that life needs to be strengthened it needs to be nurtured and so that is what sunday night dinner is all about not simply to feed your body that's important but in a sense it gives way to the feeding and the nurturing of your soul of your character of your life and is there a conversation that goes on during that sunday night dinner oh yeah god forbid you not be there and i don't care what the reason is because if you're not there everybody else is going to talk about you and now inventing reasons why you're not there and there none of them are going to be good but when you are there there your body receives the nurture and the nutrients that it needs to stay alive but it is your soul it's your life that which is now fed and nourished by that free-flowing free-wheeling exchange of conversation that goes on so you can sit back and say these are the people to whom i belong and these are the people who nurture me and to feed me frank reed knew that when he came into god's house and was listened to the words of sacred scripture and would feed upon the body and blood of christ the savior he knew he could sit back after receiving communion this is where i belong this is my family it nourishes my life it feeds my soul it gives me that sense of identity and so he knew it and he treasured it to his fingertips we also shared how should we say this a rather critical view of certain politicians and certain public health officials and we would talk about that often and when he decided to move to north carolina and of course gina i know you had to say goodbye to your family here to go with your frank to now start a brand new chapter of life in north carolina it was difficult and i knew it would be but god bless you you were standing by your man every step of the way and it would now put the two of you much closer and this is now the truth much closer to sophia that was that was what frank told me right up front that's why we're moving to north carolina so after he'd been there for a while so i called him on the phone mercifully he kept his 818 cell number thank you jesus and so i would hey frank how's it going oh fine i said now are you settling in oh yeah first thing first to me i found a parish and i go there every day and so he could tell me the name of the parish the name of the priest the time of the mass and i said now frank do you like it there he said oh yeah it's a whole different world than being in the county and city of los angeles everything is open everything is fine people are free to now live i said beautiful i wish you the very best and i said i miss you frank he said i miss you too and so that was the way that our relationship would now go 3 000 miles apart but it would be the telephone that would keep everything going before it was that frank and gina now made the big trek to north carolina one day frank says to me he says you know gina is a fantastic cook i said oh wonderful he said yeah how about if gina were to make dinner for you sometime and i said well that would be great by me but um what about gina she better be on board with this oh no she'll be fine so then we simply set up the date there was a knock at the door and i opened frank is there almost with a dolly bringing in layers of courses for dinner that night and so i said well bring them on in i said so what is it what has to go in the refrigerator almost all of it i said okay we better start emptying it out and so that was the first time they were able to have gina so we will the priests of the house were able to enjoy dinner thanks to gina so the next day frank asked me said what do you think i said i can't begin to describe how wonderful how delicious it was but most of all how wonderful gina is to do all of that work just for me he said well it wasn't just for you i got to share some of it too okay made me feel a little bit better and so that went on for several times so gina i don't i know it was an awful lot of work for you but my goodness i certainly enjoyed it and loved it and so thank you very much frank put up a fantastic fight and yet it's one of those since it was that he was a man of faith he was able to see his life in its perspective and to go back just a few days ago to wednesday when we freely marked smeared our foreheads with ashes and i mentioned to people we're putting this sign of death on our forehead why well for a couple of reasons there can be many different takes on what ashes are you take any ten catholics why do you put it why do you use ashes you'll get at least 35 different responses out of those 10 people that's fine but just a couple now that the church puts before us for us to consider number one it's a sign of death but in that it's a sign of death we're members of the household of faith and so it's a reminder now that we're entering more deeply into this time we're going with the lord jesus into the desert and so it is death which to us as followers of the lord jesus death is never the end it's only a stage life is always the end good friday is never the last word easter sunday but the rising of raising of christ the savior into eternal life that is always the last word and second it reminds us at the end of the day none of us has utter and complete control of our lives as much as we would like to think we do we don't and so we what are we then we're in the hands of an all-holy all-providential god who made us in love holds us together in love and loves us every day of our life but with the love that is so intense and is so strong that when it is that our mortal bodies lie in death it is that love of god that draws us gently carefully and reverently from this life across the chasm of death to bring us into an eternity of life of love of warmth of light of justice and of peace frank knew that and so therefore he was able to face that terrifying diagnosis the difficulty of the standard routine of chemo and radiation kind of now the last ditch effort of experimental drugs that certainly worked for a number of times but the human body cannot endure that onslaught forever and forever and when death would come frank simply accepted it and allowed himself to be submerged into death knowing that the lord god would be there to lift him into the glory of eternal life and so now sophia and gina and patricia that's the way that we remember this lovely and sweet man he was as gina said father mike he loved you and i said i loved him too and so you could probably figure out by now i'm biased frank was my friend and that's the way that i always remember him and treasure those days that we had together all of those great conversations we would have together and now we simply give unto the care of god almighty god the almighty father raised christ his son from the dead with confidence we ask him to save all his people living and dead and to each of these if you please respond lord hear our prayer for frank when baptism was given the pledge of eternal life may he now be admitted to the company of the saints we pray to the lord for our deceased relatives and friends and for all who've helped us may they have the reward of their goodness we pray to the lord for those who have fallen asleep in the hope of rising again may they see god face to face we pray to the lord for the family and friends of our brother frank may they be consoled in their grief by the lord who wept to the death of his friend lazarus we pray to the lord for all of us assembled here to worship in faith may we be gathered together again in god's kingdom we pray to the lord honor shelter and strength you listen in love to the cry of your people hear the prayers we offer for departed brothers and sisters cleanse them of their sins and grant them the fullness of redemption through christ our lord and so michael you are up foreign [Music] oh [Music] foreign like [Music] why will we me [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] you are [Music] [Music] us [Music] is [Music] um [Music] pray my brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father be near o lord we pray to your servant frank as we offer you this sacrifice of conciliation so that should any stain if sin have clung to him or any human fault affected him it may by your loving gift be forgiven and wiped away through christ our lord the lord be with you lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the lord our god it is truly right and just our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty and eternal god through christ our lord in christ the hope of blessed resurrection is dawned that those saddened by the certainty of dying might be consoled by the promise of immortality to come indeed for your faithful lord life is changed not ended and when this earthly dwelling turns to dust an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven and so with angels and archangels with thrones and dominions with all the hosts and powers of heaven we sing the hymn of your glorious without end we acclaim [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] two [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] you are indeed holy o lord the fount of all holiness make holy therefore these gifts we pray by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall so that they may become for us the body and blood of our lord jesus christ at the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion jesus took bread and giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of your need of it for this is my body which will be given up for you in a similar way when supper was ended jesus took the chalice and once more giving thanks gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant which shall be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me the mystery of faith we proclaim your death o lord and profess your resurrection [Music] therefore as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection we offer you lord the bread of life and the chalice of salvation giving thanks that you've held us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charity together with francis our pope and to say our bishop and all the clergy remember your servant frank whom you have called from this world to yourself grant that frank who's united with your son in the death like his may also be one with christ and his resurrection remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy welcome them into the light of your face have mercy on us all we pray that with the blessed virgin mary mother of god with blessed joseph her spouse with the blessed apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life and may praise and glorify you through your son jesus christ through him and with him and in him oh god almighty father in the unity of the holy spirit all glory and honor is yours forever [Music] at the savior's command and formed by divine teaching we dare to say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil deliver us lord we pray from every evil graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy we may always be free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and coming of our savior jesus christ for the kingdom the power and the glory are yours now and forever lord jesus christ who said your apostles of peace i leave you my peace i give you look not in our sins but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will who lives and reigns forever and ever may the peace of the lord be with you always let us offer each other the blessing of god's peace [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb lord i am not worthy they should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed [Music] go me [Music] yes [Music] is me [Music] is [Music] three [Music] thank you so uh now i invite forward mr gavin rossdale dr sanji and mr jeff patofsky good morning everyone i'm gavin thank you gina and sophia for inviting me in this honor to sport a few words about frank um on the admin level following brian cranston's quite a tough tough call thank you for your wonderful speech wonderful words um i first met frank some 20 years ago strong handsome and magnetic and way too big for the corridor in his office it's too big for life wonderful he's the king of kinesiology and any subject you want to talk about health sports cars love movies food whatever it was he was a man for that and he would fix me up like i was the only patient in the world you know that is the mark of a great doctor is to make you feel like you're patient zero and the most important person that he's seen nice to rush in their office really just kind of rude really you know without appointments and stuff and i'd call them on the way and say frank can you see me i'm hurt and this way all that say come on in i'd go in there and be the office full of the he had the waste paper basket he was a terrible he was such a talented man he such a messy throw which is ironic you know you have to go far with the shot but you'd have to be necessarily accurate um and that strange relief he pulled one side to help the other you know it was dizzying he did one pull make you weak one pull make you strong i'd say i'd say but frank how can i exist without you can you come on tour with me and the truth was everything was better when he was around it began with medicine but bled into all areas of my life frank was a great friend to me i mean to be honest a real father figure to me um i i literally i i found so much refuge and frank i told him everything i mean he knew more about me than i think i know about myself and that's an incredible gift and just like everyone you know i've been through fires and when you are on fire you know you need a fireman and frank put out many fires through our years together and i hope that in some way i was there for him too i look around and i see the affection and love that he inspired how many lives he touched and indeed how many people he put back together for sofia and gina how good it is to be here support you in this service and to celebrate frank you know from my perspective is celebrate this great man you were just incredible on that front line with him these last few years of his life it was just it was incredible to watch and i mean it's hard to imagine that life that he would you know without you guys and um what a gift it was so strange to talk with him when he was a during the illness when he moved to winston salem unsafe from the knowledge of how sick he was and how long he would have and it all started the conversation sound actually quite weak for the first couple of minutes and within two or three minutes that that strength would come back and be the old frank worrying about me worrying about what's going on around me and he just got so much strength from helping other people which i think most people here know i'd asked about the girls and he'd say gina was struggling and sophia was a soldier and he'd say that he was fine with his outcome but he was worried about his girls he was worried about his girls he accepted his fate with honor i mean it was just it was extraordinary to talk to someone who knew the end was coming and there was no there was just acceptance no bitterness no pity no wonder why it happened to him he had so many of the spiritual helpers around the world that that worked with him and just it was such a um a gift to to to have that kind of to be around that humility it was a lesson and there was hardship when he left la justice failed him fairness failed him and the practice was gone too soon but from those disappointing ashes he had the most wonderful time moving to winston-salem and he said to me a number of times that this was his happiest years of his life because he could just be with his three favorites gina sophia and bella you know and that was the mark of the man adversity and disappointment was a catalyst for a new life and as a father there's no greater gift than time with your children and if you get it right they feel the same frank got it right i miss him very much thank you so hi my name is manaf i happen to be a cardiologist and i practice medicine in the same building as frank i've been in the valley for 20 years i'd heard of people of patients going to the mayo clinic to see some super specialists to germany i had never heard all of america coming to see a chiropractor in sheminos california and i've been knew this for 20 years and i and it first of course i i didn't know frank i was privileged that that i i came to the valley because uh when i finished training paddy tells me that hey you know there's three uh jewish cardiologists looking for an indian muslim african-born cardiologist just like me so that's how i got introduced to frank many years ago um but you know during the last few years about six seven years ago i had opened up our third office in in in sherman oaks in the same building that frank was and i can tell you without any doubt that he treated me as well as he did sophia um i was just so honored that he was completely colorblind um genderblind um race blind he truly treated everyone i knew so well the only hard part was he made my job very very difficult i've been privileged to know many of you here today um it was difficult because he knew every single patient so well that he felt compelled to talk about them for 45 minutes every single time seven days a week and then he also felt it necessary to come upstairs and discuss the case with me for another 45 minutes i'm in therapy because of him but um you know i think that what touched me most really is that he was truly dedicated as a friend um he he truly went above and beyond uh in every single facet um what what i couldn't understand is when when um many of the patients that can get sent to me they would send to me i'd send a note and we're done but with his patients many of his patients i would ask them so who is your thyroid specialist frank who is your chiropractor frank who am every single part of medicine he he truly took interest he was brilliant and he cared he cared so deeply about every single soul and that's what set him apart and he's such a great great role model i'm going to keep it brief because i think he wanted to punish me so that i can follow all the great eloquent speakers before me he figured let me stick this cardiologist behind this guy so he doesn't do so well but i will be brief and i think um you know um patty gina sophia thank you for allowing me to do this today and i'm truly honored um except i know sophia more than i know my own kids um he he tried really really really hard not to brag about you but somehow some way he would manage to slip it out every single time about the chancellor about your your your track in your life and most importantly i think he was just just so happy that you were a kind decent human being who truly cared it's not about the career track it's not about all that stuff and it did matter that you care um but i just want to take a couple minutes i know gina told me i only have 30 seconds i know why because everyone else is so good at being up here and truly describing frank in the best possible way but again it's just been an honor to have known him and and i thank you the problem with going last is cranston stole my good material and did it better uh i met frank about almost 35 years ago started because i needed a chiropractor moved on to me being his lawyer then kind of as business manager and somewhere in there we became best friends we spoke almost every day um i'm still dialing his phone number uh in the morning before i catch myself doing it it's um it's difficult but i thought about what to say today i have been thinking about it for a while and struggling with it and it's really not about my relationship with frank it's about our relationship with frank um i mean i could tell a whole bunch of stories of what we did like when we went to the notre dame game we were in chicago in a hotel and he made the mistake of being in the same room with me i snore like a banshee and i woke up in the morning couldn't find him he's sleeping in the tub with towels under the door for noise protection now picture that just for a moment here's this mountain danny calls him superman he's right this superman is sleeping curled up in a tub and i got him up and said you know what the something are you doing and he said well i had two choices this or what i did to my college roommate when he snored i said what did you do to your college roommate when he snored he said i threw him at a second story window followed by his mattress so the tub was better for me or one of the first visits i ever had with frank as a patient um coaching little league i threw my right arm i couldn't feel my right arm i'd pitch so much to the boys and i went and said i can't move my right arm he just donkey punches my left arm i mean like as hard as he can says how's your right arm feel now i say i can't feel either arm frank he said good and then he grabbed my left pinky toe stuck a finger in my ear then put on one of those grape condom things on his finger shoved it up my face and said how do you feel now i said actually i feel great um that's when i realized he was actually a warlock and not not a chiropractor um but if you think about you all have those stories right he's done that to every one of us well maybe i hope he didn't donkey punch you but you know when you bend over to take your sock off at night and you can't stand up and your first reaction is i've got to call frank and it's 10 o'clock on a thursday and you just automatically pick up your cell phone and dial the phone number and he answers it and then he tells you either what to do or he comes over to your house and fixes you and did it ever occur to you that you had his phone number to begin with his cell phone number that you can call him at 10 o'clock on a thursday night or that he'd pick it up or that he'd do whatever he needed to do to take care of you because that's who he is that's the relationship that i think we all had with him um you probably forgot that he was a chiropractor because i know that we did in my family he was our doctor he was the family physician whatever we had sniffled you called frank stomachache you called frank because he knew more and no no deference to doctor shamaji he knew more than any md i've ever met he knew more about not only the body but how it worked but he knew more about our bodies and how they worked and that's something that's made him so special because he cared and he did it and if he didn't know he'd go find the answer he dedicated his life to us for 40 something years he wanted to make sure that we were healthy and in the end i think he used up his life force taking care of us because that's the way he would have it i went back to north carolina a couple times to see him and i was going to go back again in december and i got the flu and that turned into pneumonia and then i got coveted it was a mess that i couldn't go back that last time and we spoke almost every day but about a week before he passed and we had spoken in the morning he called me just to talk football but later on he called jill to check on me because he didn't like the way i sounded here he is lying in hospice in a bed could barely breathe and he calls my wife because he's worried about how i felt and that was frank i i have to can't talk about frankie when i talk about food um and i i was thinking about it this morning like how many times did i eat with frank i was just doing some math i had probably had more than 1500 meals with frank over that time i mean literally whether whether gina was cooking or we were the deli or jill was cooking or whatever it was um we ate probably once a week for all that time and every meal started out the similar conversation patties is better genus is better you know my grandma's meatballs better i'm like frankfurt sally is having a corned beef sandwich he says you have a genus corn beef sandwich would be better i said gina doesn't make corn beef sandwiches it would still be better and he's right but i so here's my my wish as we sit here today that i wish frankie is sitting down at the table having grandma's meatballs having patty's lasagna having chicken parm the gina maid watching the notre dame football game and talking about us goodbye frankie let us pray grant we pray almighty god that your servant frank who has journeyed from this world may by this sacrifice be cleansed and free from sin and so receive the everlasting joys of the resurrection through christ our lord my sorrow again to all of you and then specifically patricia and sophia i know it's your dad and always will now your dad has simply gone to the life where he will be with you forever and always and gina my tears to you the two of you were a wonderful partnership now he's simply in heaven praying for you all the time and from across the miles to his aunt lena who sent these the beautiful floral arrangement in the form of a cross back in connecticut my sorrow and lena to you the lord be with you may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit go the mass has ended thanks be to god [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so you

Channel: Saint Francis de Sales Church

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Id: gx6LiEDW2Yw

Length: 96min 25sec (5785 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022