On Saturday, August 20, dozens of friends, family and neighbors gathered to help Fran Blum celebrate her 100th birthday. She was known to me as Aunt Fran since I met her through her nephews Joe and Ed Blum who grew up on Pease Road. Their parents were Joseph and Inez Blum. Fran’s husband, John, was a brother of Joseph.
Fran entered this world in August 1916 on a farm in Camrose, Alberta, Canada. She was the sixth of nine children in the Budinski family. When Fran was six, the family moved to Waterport, New York and later to Albion. Fran attended grades one through three at the Cobblestone Schoolhouse in Childs on Route 104. Like Fran, it still stands today.
Fran however, doesn’t stand very tall anymore, perhaps about four feet, but her speech and demeanor make up for what she may lack in stature. When she was 10 the family gave up on farm work and moved to the Dutchtown area of Rochester’s west side. There Fran attended fourth through eighth grade at Holy Family School and then Madison High School.
Fran worked odd jobs until she was hired at Taylor Instrument Co. where she was a glass technician for some of their instruments, thermometers and also some items Taylor made for submarines during WWII. In 1944 she enlisted in the Navy, becoming a medical assistant and a dental technician serving in Brooklyn, New York, Bethesda, Maryland and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She was discharged in 1946 as a Hospital Apprentice First class and returned to work at Taylor’s
Among the people in Dutchtown was a family named Blum and their daughter Eleanor was Fran’s best friend. Eleanor had three brothers: Elmer, Joseph and John who was known to be a pretty good baseball player for the local team. Through the families, John and Fran knew each other a long time and eventually began dating. Everyone was surprised when he asked her to marry him very quickly. Fran recalled how the friends and family were all counting the months after their marriage, apparently suspecting the usual reason for a hasty marriage.
However, the fact was the couple learned that Grandma Budinski, Fran’s mother, was terminally ill. They wanted to get married while she was still able to be there and eventually could pass on knowing they were married. That was in 1949 and later they had one child, a daughter Barbara.
Fran worked at the Smith Corona typewriter store in downtown Rochester, also at Sibley’s store and in the office at Holy Family School. She was active in Girl Scouts and became a Troop Leader. Fran retired from Holy Family in 1976. Subsequently, she and John moved to Conesus Lake to enjoy their retirement. After John died, she sold the home and moved to the Spencerport area where her daughter lived. Here she became active in St. John’s Church and as a member of the Ogden Senior Citizens.
Her response as to how she made it to 100 was immediately stated as “faith, family, friends and prayer.” She recalled waking up on the morning of her birthday with a serious ache in her shoulder that went down her arm and was thinking about not getting up until she realized what day it was. “I said, ‘God you’ve got to help me get up and get through this day,’ ” she recalls saying and she did it wonderfully. As for the future it will be “one year at a time” and no thought of giving up her independent living apartment in the complex where she is living with many other seniors. Long live “Aunt” Fran!
