Michael Franco

My dad, Michael, was diagnosed with glioblastoma in October of 2018, just one month after achieving his goal of early retirement. He stayed with us for 11 hard-fought months before passing away in September 2019. Dad spent most of his career working as a project manager in technology, though his true calling was being on the bike. He was an avid road cyclist, accomplished at time trial racing and a member of the Liberty Cycling Club of Basking Ridge, NJ. More than anything my dad had a big heart, and to him love was everything. He loved so much and so deeply. As he once said to me, “the Bible says that everything we know in this life is ephemeral EXCEPT love. Love is the most important thing.” Love stays with you forever. He loved his daughters, parents, wife, granddaughters, family, and friends, and God with his whole heart. Love not only helped move dad through life, but also through his illness. There’s an essay he read dozens of times after being diagnosed, called “Falling Into Eternity”. In it the author writes, “When even one life is unjustly taken, there were and are those who at the end, in meeting the test of faith, suffer no anguish, not merely in giving themselves over to trust but in giving themselves wholly to love. Love will carry you, if you know it, if you let it, through all tests, through suffering and death. In suffering, it is as if an angel folds his wings to protect you.” The best moments we spend with each other have an everlasting quality about them, and that stays with you. What those moments give you stays with you. The way we as human beings can achieve life after death is by leaving our mark on others. My dad certainly left his mark on those around him, and I hope this memorial- and the memorials of so many others- encourage others to do the same.