Frank Whitaker
1953 – 2026
“Don’t be sad for long. I had a full life, and most of it was the people in these pictures.”
If you’re reading this, I’ve gone on ahead. I made this page myself, a little at a time, so I could say things properly instead of leaving it to whoever had to stand up at the service. I was a husband, a dad, a granddad, a little brother and a pretty good friend. I fixed things, I played the piano badly and happily, and I took far too many pictures. Here are some of them.
Where I started
I was born in the spring of 1953 and grew up on a street where every kid knew every other kid. My dad taught me to ride a bike in our driveway, my mother kept every drawing I ever made, and I spent most summers building model airplanes that never quite flew.
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Elanor
My big sister Elanor was four years ahead of me and never let me forget it. She walked me to the bus, bought me ice cream when I was sad, and helped with the science fair volcano that set off the kitchen smoke alarm. Sixty years later she’s still the first person I call.
First day. Elanor held my hand.
Strawberry, always.
It worked a bit too well.
Tom
Tom moved in two doors down when we were three, and that was that. We ran through sprinklers, shared a treehouse, and wrote each other letters when college sent us to different states. He stood next to me at my wedding and I stood next to him at his. Tom, I recorded something just for you.
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Maggie
I met Margaret, Maggie to everyone, on the college quad in the fall of 1974. She was reading under a tree and I pretended I needed help with a class I wasn’t even taking. We married in 1979 and had forty-seven years of flea markets, road trips, mini golf and burnt cookies. Maggie, thank you for every one of them.
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Emily
Our daughter Emily arrived in 1982 and turned everything upside down in the best way. Blanket forts, violin recitals, a roller rink birthday, the Grand Canyon, and then one day I was carrying boxes up to her first apartment. Walking her down the aisle in 2007 was the proudest day of my life. Em, this one’s for you.
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Alex
Then came our grandson Alex in 2009, and I got to do it all over again, only slower and with more snacks. Alex, I put some advice in a video for you. You don’t have to take all of it.
The rest of it
In between all that I did thirty-odd years in an office I mostly enjoyed, fixed half the furniture on our street, read on every beach I could find and kept a garden that fed the neighbors. These are some of the ordinary days I’d gladly live again.
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The piano
I taught myself piano at fifty and never got good, which never stopped me. Emily put together the clip below from my playing and our old home movies. Play it loud.
“Go get some ice cream. Call your sister. Be kind. That’s about all I know.”
Love, Frank