Remembering Frank
Donation protected
Frank and I met in the summer of 2005. I was interviewing for my first real job after college at a civil rights organization, Frank was one of the interviewers. When he came out of the conference room to invite me in, he greeted me in French.
I got the job and moved into Frank's office. We sat 73 inches apart. Part of our job was to visit new apartment complexes and measure doorways and bathrooms to make sure they complied with accessibility requirements for people in wheelchairs. As practice, we measured everything in the office. We visited the complexes together while Frank trained me, concocting elaborate cover stories in which one of our siblings used a wheelchair.
We started going salsa dancing together. Frank invited me to his parties. Three months after I started the job, the organization lost its funding and Frank and I started dating.
A year later, we moved to Spain together. Then we spent three years in New York City. Then a year in Paris. When we met, Frank was considering going to law school, but he quickly realized that law was never his true calling: His real passion was always art. Throughout our travels, he worked tirelessly to become a better artist. He copied great masters in the Prado Museum in Madrid. He studied at Grand Central Academy and the Art Students' League in New York. He studied original drawings owned by the Louve in Paris.
In 2012, we moved back to our hometown, Portland Oregon. We got married - after 8 years together - in 2013. In the spring of 2015 I got pregnant with our daughter, Sofia.
We spent most of July on a trip to Eastern Idaho so Frank could study plein air painting.
On the drive home Frank started feeling uncomfortable. One of his testicles was swollen and sore. He went to the doctor the day after we got home. The doctor gave him antibiotics. Frank got worse, and was so fatigued he could barely walk to the house next door.
A week later, his right leg ballooned up. He got an ultrasound and it showed nothing. Two days later, his left leg swelled up. I took him to get the leg imaged because he could no longer drive. He had deep vein thrombosis and was sent directly to the emergency room.
In the ER, a CT scan revealed that he had lymphoma.
At first his lymphoma seemed treatable, but he kept having complication after complication. Finally he got a new diagnosis, for a frequently fatal subtype of lymphoma. After seven months struggling with his cancer, Frank died rather suddenly from an infection. Our daughter Sofia was two months old and was in his arms when he died.
Both of our hearts are broken.
I'm raising money to help with the costs associated with remembering Frank and complying with his last wishes, as well as taking care of our daughter. Here are the things I'm raising money for:
1. Frank was fascinated by artistic anatomy, and he always insisted that his skeleton should go to an art school so that artists could learn from his body after he was gone. Frank's skeleton is going to the Art Students' League of New York, where he will join a female skeleton and be able to teach a new generation of artists even in death.
There are considerable costs associated with going from a body in the morgue in Portland, Oregon to a prepared skeleton in a plexiglass case in New York City.
2. I will be holding a memorial service for Frank in July, in the park we got married in. I'm going to get catering from his favorite restaurant and buy several bottles of Spanish Rioja, his favorite wine.
3. Frank has many paintings and drawings that he was meaning to frame but never got around to doing so while he was alive. I'm not going to sell any of his art, but I do want to give away certain paintings to friends and family. The rest will be framed for Sofia and I to cherish for the rest of our lives.
4. Our daughter has been robbed of her father, but I can make sure that she learns about him and his life. With help from Frank's friends, his brothers and his parents, I'm compiling a book (probably actually several books) of photos of Frank accompanied by the stories behind the photos. I'll get these books printed at a self-published company like Blurb. Each book costs around $130 to print. I'd like to be able to print at least two copies of each book (one for myself, one for Sofia) and probably more so that his friends and family can have one if they want.
5. Our daughter is only two months old, but it is never too early to start saving for college. Once I have paid for Frank's skeleton, his memorial service, framing his art and picture books in his memory, I'll put the money aside for Sofia's college fund.
Thank you for helping me carry out my husband's last wishes and create a legacy for him that will allow our daughter to know her father.
Emily Liedel
I got the job and moved into Frank's office. We sat 73 inches apart. Part of our job was to visit new apartment complexes and measure doorways and bathrooms to make sure they complied with accessibility requirements for people in wheelchairs. As practice, we measured everything in the office. We visited the complexes together while Frank trained me, concocting elaborate cover stories in which one of our siblings used a wheelchair.
We started going salsa dancing together. Frank invited me to his parties. Three months after I started the job, the organization lost its funding and Frank and I started dating.
A year later, we moved to Spain together. Then we spent three years in New York City. Then a year in Paris. When we met, Frank was considering going to law school, but he quickly realized that law was never his true calling: His real passion was always art. Throughout our travels, he worked tirelessly to become a better artist. He copied great masters in the Prado Museum in Madrid. He studied at Grand Central Academy and the Art Students' League in New York. He studied original drawings owned by the Louve in Paris.
In 2012, we moved back to our hometown, Portland Oregon. We got married - after 8 years together - in 2013. In the spring of 2015 I got pregnant with our daughter, Sofia.
We spent most of July on a trip to Eastern Idaho so Frank could study plein air painting.
On the drive home Frank started feeling uncomfortable. One of his testicles was swollen and sore. He went to the doctor the day after we got home. The doctor gave him antibiotics. Frank got worse, and was so fatigued he could barely walk to the house next door.
A week later, his right leg ballooned up. He got an ultrasound and it showed nothing. Two days later, his left leg swelled up. I took him to get the leg imaged because he could no longer drive. He had deep vein thrombosis and was sent directly to the emergency room.
In the ER, a CT scan revealed that he had lymphoma.
At first his lymphoma seemed treatable, but he kept having complication after complication. Finally he got a new diagnosis, for a frequently fatal subtype of lymphoma. After seven months struggling with his cancer, Frank died rather suddenly from an infection. Our daughter Sofia was two months old and was in his arms when he died.
Both of our hearts are broken.
I'm raising money to help with the costs associated with remembering Frank and complying with his last wishes, as well as taking care of our daughter. Here are the things I'm raising money for:
1. Frank was fascinated by artistic anatomy, and he always insisted that his skeleton should go to an art school so that artists could learn from his body after he was gone. Frank's skeleton is going to the Art Students' League of New York, where he will join a female skeleton and be able to teach a new generation of artists even in death.
There are considerable costs associated with going from a body in the morgue in Portland, Oregon to a prepared skeleton in a plexiglass case in New York City.
2. I will be holding a memorial service for Frank in July, in the park we got married in. I'm going to get catering from his favorite restaurant and buy several bottles of Spanish Rioja, his favorite wine.
3. Frank has many paintings and drawings that he was meaning to frame but never got around to doing so while he was alive. I'm not going to sell any of his art, but I do want to give away certain paintings to friends and family. The rest will be framed for Sofia and I to cherish for the rest of our lives.
4. Our daughter has been robbed of her father, but I can make sure that she learns about him and his life. With help from Frank's friends, his brothers and his parents, I'm compiling a book (probably actually several books) of photos of Frank accompanied by the stories behind the photos. I'll get these books printed at a self-published company like Blurb. Each book costs around $130 to print. I'd like to be able to print at least two copies of each book (one for myself, one for Sofia) and probably more so that his friends and family can have one if they want.
5. Our daughter is only two months old, but it is never too early to start saving for college. Once I have paid for Frank's skeleton, his memorial service, framing his art and picture books in his memory, I'll put the money aside for Sofia's college fund.
Thank you for helping me carry out my husband's last wishes and create a legacy for him that will allow our daughter to know her father.
Emily Liedel
Organizer
Emily Liedel
Organizer
Portland, OR