Tom died in 2000, and Fran moved to Springfield to be near her daughter, Dawn, who is a schoolteacher at Susan Wilcox elementary school. She bought a small house on Illinois Street, and did a lot of work to make it cozy. Fran would often ask me to come over to work on things that she couldn’t do. I enjoyed helping her, but never wanted pay, so she would always have a couple cold beers in the fridge to pay me with. We would sit at her kitchen table, and talk about how she loved it when the kids were little, and all the neighborhood kids would hang out at her and Tom’s house. Then she would always tear up, and tell me how lonely she was with her husband gone, and the kids grown up and on their own now. I would tear up with her, because here was this wonderful 72-year-old lady, with the mind and stature of a 40-year-old, with so much to offer, but so lonely.
In the winter, she would leave a sled in her trunk. And if she rode by Pasfield Park, and the kids were sledding, she would park her car and climb up the hills, and have a ball sledding down the hills with the kids.
Last December at our office Christmas party, Fran would wear her daughter out dancing. We all laughed and said “That’s our Fran.” Then, to everyone’s amazement, Fran suddenly died of a heart attack on Jan. 31, 2010. We talk about Fran all the time. And this year’s Christmas party, or any year’s for that matter, will never be the same.
Great article about Fran! I was one of the neighborhood kids in Chicago who Fran let hang out at her house. She always helped the other "Porch People" ladys of Albany Park keep us brats out of trouble.. We all loved her and still do! God Bless Fran, she will always be in the thoughts of many many people! Doug Morris
I remember "Mrs. Richardson"most for being the lunch lady in our school cafeteria. Her daughter Dawn was my BEST friend and Mrs. Richardson always treated us like one of her own. It was kind of like having your Mom searve you lunch! Tim McClellan
Thank you Bill Parker for writing this article about my mother, Frances Richardson. Thank you to all who continue to remember what a remarkable woman she was. I was really missing my mom this week and with all the snow in Chicago I decided to go sledding down the local hill in remembrance of her, she did it all the time, I thought I could do it too, no big deal. Let me tell you, I'm 45 and it hurt, LOL. She was in better shape than any of us. She walked to work, downtown, most days, went to an aerobics class 2x weekly, was a volunteer at Lincoln Memorial Gardens taking school children for hikes through the woods, teaching them about nature. My father and her retired together to Springfield in 1992, that was their little pink cozy house on Illini. He passed away in 2000. This Christmas, my parents were together in Heaven, and we all know that was the one thing missing from her life, she never got over the loss of my dad. Thank you again to all that will never forget her. I try to show kindness to others everyday as she taught me. My mom always told us, her 3 kids, just love one another, be kind to others, and everything else will work out.