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Tonight, a Kaddish for Margaret Cashel Phelan (b 1917).
Mrs Phelan was my high school friend Cyndi’s mom, better known as Mrs Francis Phelan—he was the potato broker and local character whose name marked on the enormous Quonset on the edge of town (minus the “H” for as long as anyone can remember, so we used to joke that her real name was “Cyndi P’elan”). Mom served on some civic organizations with Cyndi’s mom. I can’t say as I knew much more than that about her, but for reasons I couldn’t quite recall, she was widely well-regarded around Grafton, North Dakota. This article in the Grand Forks Herald suggests some of the reasons and informs me that she was the granddaughter of one of our town’s founders.
May she rest in peace. Cyndi, you’re in our thoughts.
Thanks for passing along the news of Margaret’s death, as I hadn’t heard the news.
It brings back lots of fond memories of Francis and Margaret, though it’s diffiecult to remember Francis without a big smile. Francis was known for his totally illegible signatures. Yes, even more illegible than mine. In fact, at Kiwanis meetings I would occasionally sign his attendance form for laughs.
People would occasionally give Francis a bad time about his signature, but he always maintained, “Don’t worry–when the bank won’t cash my checks it won’t be because they can’t read my signature.”