Frankie was so proud to be an American. He felt called to serve his country. He joined the Michigan Army National Guard as a Chaplain candidate. He prayed about and explored his options for years before choosing MIANG. He was able to combine his two loves, ministry and patriotism. A Chaplain serves his soldiers by building trust and relationships with his soldiers in order to support them through all of life’s struggles; as well as supporting all of their spiritual needs. He loved being a Chaplain candidate. He hated the schooling it took to get there but felt it was worth it to be able to do the job. He was very proud of continuing the legacy his family started before him. He didn’t just serve his one weekend a month; a Chaplain needs to be available for a variety of needs at anytime of the day. He would answer or return a phone call whenever a soldier needed. He met up with guys outside of his “duty”; he truly loved to serve others.

I was dreading the idea of him being deployed; I had some time to come to terms with it since he couldn’t be deployed as a candidate and he had 6-8 months left until he accessioned. He wanted to deploy so he could relate to his soldiers more. The other benefit of being deployed was the camaraderie and brotherhood that was built while being so far from home. Frankie was always social; each of his jobs had a social component. He had his military brothers and his union brothers at Consumers Energy.

Frankie was also proud to be a skilled tradesman. He loved to learn, not always in the conventional way, but he took pride in having a college degree and working on a master’s degree. He believed that there were plenty of things that were better learned hands on. He saw great value in working with his hands and the essential job he did to bring gas to people’s homes. He didn’t carry any negative connotations that commonly come with being a skilled worker. He was proud that he had learned so much and was looking forward to learning more skills to broaden his horizons. He saw a future with Consumers Energy and was proud to help protect the future of his fellow Union brothers by being an active part of his local.

It was hard in the early days after each brain injury; Frankie had no desire to be social. He didn’t remember his bonus brothers and had no desire to try to reestablish those connections. He has definitely gotten that social butterfly quality back, but he still has times of anxiety about being around other people.

I use the past tense because because I have to grieve the life and people we were before the life changing events of the past two years. I also know Frankie will be different when he gets to the point of having feelings and opinions again. I don’t want to hold Frankie to unrealistic standards.

I hope he is able to go back to working on being a Chaplain and back to being with his Union brothers; but I know that Chaplaincy will be very far down the road. Until then I’ll just keep hoping my patriotic goofball of a man can come back enough to be able to enjoy and take pride in his country again.