If you are active in your neighborhood, school, or city, you meet many terrific people. And, you share in the loss when some of them die.
I got to know John Sarvey and Fran Seasholes, both lived a short walk from my home and both died recently. Bruce provided a nice paragraph about John, who was as nice a guy as you’ll meet.
Fran was one of the many tireless, relatively anonymous activists/volunteers who animate our city. From her obituary in the TAB:
During her 56 years in Newton she was actively involved with The League of Women Voters, the Newton PTAs of Bowen, Weeks and Newton South High School, The Arlington Street Church (UUA), The Second Church in Newton (UCC), Newton Dialogues on Peace and War, The Newton Conservators, The Newton Green Decade, Newton Community Development Foundation, The Newton Centre Task Force and the Newton/San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) Sister City Project. Fran was raised in Syracuse, NY, educated at Oberlin College, the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) and the University of North Carolina. As a Child Welfare Social Worker she was employed by the Orange County (NC) Welfare Department, The New England Home for Little Wanderers, The Gaebler Children’s Hospital, and Protestant Social Service Bureau (now ISS in Quincy). In recent years Fran and her husband traveled widely and provided homestays for about 225 foreign students here to study English.
Fran was a lovely, thoughtful woman, clearly motivated by a simple desire to leave the world a better place. She did. She’ll be missed.
The memorial for Fran is tonight at 7pm at the Second Church in West Newton, MA
