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Frank Eugene Andrade
Frank Andrade died at about 6 AM on Sunday morning, August 21, 2011. He was my brother. We were both born to Norma (Drisko) Andrade Zahar Higgins, Frank in 1946 and me in 1951. We have several siblings including Margie, Carl, Milli, Vikki and Shelli. The above is a photo from the first time I ever saw Frank which was on August 12, 2004. And if you are wondering how we could be born in 1946 and 1951 and not have met each until more than 50 years later in 2004 for the very first time ever, then CLICK HERE to read the whole store about our reunion. I was quite surprised when I first met Frank. He reminded me very much of my life long best friend, Ron Carpenter, who I met in college in Boston in 1969. Interestingly, many times that we have gone places together people have asked if Ron Carpenter and I are brothers. But as you can see below Frank and Ron look more like brothers than I do to either of them. You can see the similarities between them below:
I certainly hadn't expected Frank to pass on so soon. From the time that I met Frank and started to learn more about his approach to life I had a growing affinity towards him. I could tell we shared some characteristics that were rather unusual. Finding out that he liked to collect little ceramic houses was a key from the start! I also had the odd habit of collecting little ceramic houses and how many guys do you know that like to collect little ceramic houses? When we went to visit Frank when he was in Intensive Care in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, I had brought a little ceramic house with me to give to Frank in hopes of cheering him up. When Barbara and I took our flight to visit him in Florida, Frank was still conscious and communicating and we were expecting to be able to talk with him. But the next morning as we were on our way to visit Frank, he suffered respiratory failure and had to be sedated to accommodate the breathing tube. Thus he was unconscious when we arrived to visit him. Because we never got to speak with him I totally forgot to leave the little ceramic house with him, but it looked like they didn't want anything left in the Intensive Care room anyway. While we were visiting in the hospital, Frank did become conscious and open his eyes for a short while. He did see us, but whether he really knew or remembered we were there visiting him, I guess we will never know. Over the 8 years since we first met, Frank and I talked about a few things and I got the feeling we'd discover more similarities between us as we got to know each other better. We also had the same aversion to talking on the telephone. I have no problem communicating via email or talking with people one on one in person (though that certainly wasn't always the case!). Frank had the same aversion to phone conversations. He also was a man of few words even in person, as I used to be. It is too bad he never got into the internet age of email and text as I think it would have helped him get more interconnected with the world. Sometimes just for fun when my wife was on the phone with my sister Shelli, Shelli would ask Barbara to put me on the phone. As Barbara would be handing me the phone, Shelli would hand her phone to Frank. That would produce the most awkward of non-conversations as we each sought for words to say on the phone! Though I knew Frank for such a short part of our lives, I wanted to reflect on some of the time we spent together. Hence my comments above and the photos of Frank that I have assembled and posted below. In searching my photo archive I thought I would only find a few photos but instead was surprised and pleased to find the number of photos that I have of Frank.
Click on any photo below for a larger image.
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