It all started in 1980...a newly married enlisted wife dropped in Hawaii alone until Frankie and Larry Patrick entered our lifes with their two FUN LOVING boys. We had days at the beach with the boys trying to teach Jerry to surf (which I might add caused bandaides over his nips for a week from the surf board rubbing them raw), many card games with ruffles ranch dip and twinkies :-) and so many dates to the Officers Club for dancing Surf and Turf (Larry never cracked so many crab legs in his life!!!)  CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES...COME ON we're gonna celebrate and have a good time!!! The most memorable was labor and delivery of our oldest daughter (Jerry was out to sea....Frankie stepped up and went through the hole thing, I squeezed her fingers so tight her hand swelled right over her rings for days!!!) Heather greeted Frankie by peeing all done the front of her....but that didn't stop her from walking her down to the nursery as proud as ever with that huge SMILE on her face. I had the pleasure of flying to CA to land the day the MAJOR earthquake hit SAN FRAN!!! That trip was me alone and Frankie and Larry took me to the HOP dancing and of course shopping....we as a family flew out when Heather turned 16 and we took the "BARBIES" to Mexico, Meghan met Terie Lynn and we just had FUN!!!! Our most recent vist was to The Villages in March of 2011 with Frankie Meghan and I squeezing our three butts into her poor Gulf Cart we drove all over the Villages laughing and carrying on!!! Life was certainly a DANCE and we have been so inspired to DANCE...LAUGH...LOVE ...AND LIVE!!!   I will MISS you FRANKIE PATRICK and LOVE YOU FOREVER!!! You were one of the BEST mentors a young girl could EVER have.

We have been close friends with Larry and Frankie since both families found themselves in Canada in 1999.   Frankie was warm, kind and lots of fun.  She had a real empathy for people and loved animals.  Ellen and Frankie became fast friends and did lots of things together: shopping, getting into trouble, line dancing, trips to Las Vegas and getting into trouble.

Ozzie was our wonderful pet Rottweiler.  He was very scary to look at.  He loved Frankie and Frankie loved him.  It was uncanny.  While in Canada, Bob Phelps visited with us and he was a good friend of Frankie’s.  He came into our home and said her name and rushed to her with open arms.  Ozzie jumped off the sofa and got between them and would not let Bob move.  Ozzie was in his protection mode and Bob was a threat.

A couple of years later in Arizona, all of the ladies decided to take a walk.  Ellen brought Ozzie with her.  They decided to crawl under a fence and continue their walk.  When Frankie went under the fence, Ozzie got scared.  He decided to prevent her from going under the fence, so he sat on her.  He got what he wanted, not only couldn’t she move, she was laughing hysterically.

There was a wonderful bond between them.

Sometime after we left Canada, Larry and I decided to take the ladies on an Alaskan cruise.  We had great fun.  The most interesting remembrance about that trip was when we went Moose hunting.  That is, while we were in Fairbanks, we rented a car and toured the country-side looking for wildlife.  We finally saw some big game and the girls starting running after a big bull which was not really a great idea.  We did come to a fenced area and they played with a moose for a while.

Frankie loved Canada.  She learned to eat Japanese food and towards the end of our time there she tried dim sum which became a favorite.  But she did like to poke fun at our friends in Canada.  After our cruise, we came into Vancouver and toured around the areas that we had fun in.  We wound up at the mall in Richmond and took a picture of what Frankie thought was just funny.  We all laughed at the sign.  Who would have thought that “turkey” dogs would get as big as they are today?

Sometime later, the Patrick’s decided to move to Florida.  It was their first introduction into retirement and fun for all.  OK, that part of the story takes lots of twists and turns.  We visited with them several times and whenever we would get close, we would try and talk them into some sort of get together.  We visited with them and they met us in Orlando as we were going to DisneyWorld and we visited their home and once again, met with the local wild life.  Frankie always was available to share warmth and love.

Well, if you were a friend of Frankies, you were a friend to Las Vegas.  I cannot count the number of trips that we made to Las Vegas but I guess it must have been over 20.  Plus, we made trips to casinos in Arizona, San Diego, Florida and New Orleans.   We left money everywhere.  Now the way that Frankie thought was that since she got all her money from Larry, she could not lose.  She also played the ATM with lots of zest and appeal.  Larry and I would go to bed and the girls would play into the night.  Frankie loved it.

We had numerous restaurants that we would frequent in Las Vegas.  They started to know us by name.  We had our favorite dim sum restaurant, our favorite sushi place and we knew where to get bagels.  We also had our favorite breakfast places where she could get her biscuits and gravy.  What a great time we always had.

Frankie, we love you and will miss you always.  Michael and Ellen