{"id":110543,"date":"2026-07-21T11:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=110543"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T19:51:39","slug":"happy-birthday-francine-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/happy-birthday-francine-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Francine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>his is somehow Francine’s second birthday since she passed to the Lord. No, I don’t understand it either.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was our custom to celebrate her birthday with a dinner at some new place we hadn’t tried before. In 2023, we had her birthday dinner at a local tapas place called Amor. Her photo from that dinner now hangs in the dining room at Pistachio House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the plague years, we would also spend a long weekend on Vashon Island sometime in July. We had planned on resuming that custom last year. Instead, I will be going up to the island in early August to conduct an altar server training at our sister parish of Saint John Vianney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I did last year, I visited her grave at the cemetery this morning. I had originally planned to hike today, but the heat dissuaded me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This evening, some friends and I plan to go out for dinner to a place she’d never been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month ago today, I arrived in Santiago, on the first anniversary of Francine’s death. Everything today is memories and anniversaries. I suppose it always will be.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Happy birthday, my beautiful bride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is somehow Francine’s second birthday since she passed to the Lord. No, I don’t understand it either. It was our custom to celebrate her birthday with a dinner at some new place we hadn’t tried before. In 2023, we had her birthday dinner at a local tapas place called Amor. Her photo from that dinner now hangs in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-francine-my-love","category-moments-in-time"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-21-08.59.15-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-sKX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109655,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/happy-birthday-francine\/","url_meta":{"origin":110543,"position":0},"title":"Happy Birthday, Francine","author":"Thom","date":"21 July 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Francine's 63rd birthday. Last year, when she turned 62, having been born in 1962, she proclaimed that it was going to be her year. She called it her \"golden year\". Maybe it was. This is the year that she was swept up in the arms of Jesus. 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She's very clever, so we had to take some care in making sure she woudn't find out. We figured the only way we could throw a surprise birthday party for Francine's big 50 was to hold it seven weeks early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/fmparty.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":84001,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-cows-and-a-great-evening-in-fonfria\/","url_meta":{"origin":110543,"position":2},"title":"One Year Ago: Cows! And a Great Evening in Fonfr\u00eda","author":"Thom","date":"25 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"(from my journal) Fonfr\u00eda 25 April 2013 First Breakfast in Vega Today we traveled, on and off, with Iain, Anja, and a lovely Korean lady named Isabel (or, as I like to call her, Bob). 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This is a fantastic city! It\u2019s probably my favourite so far \u2013 other than Pamplona of course. Narrow, crooked streets,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"To Le\u00f3n","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9035942205_17094eaef2_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9035942205_17094eaef2_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9035942205_17094eaef2_b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9035942205_17094eaef2_b.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110540,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/saint-apollinaris-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":110543,"position":4},"title":"The Poetry of Apollo","author":"Thom","date":"20 July 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"on July 20, 1969, human beings first set foot upon the Moon. My mother claims I watched the landing at the tender age of two, hiding underneath the coffee table. If so, I don't remember it. My lovely bride Francine, however, did. 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We were misinformed about the local Mass schedule, and it briefly appeared that we would have to wait until 10am for a Mass, meaning we wouldn\u00b4t be on the road until 11 or later. 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