CARL A. DIFRANCO: She Yearned to
Help Him
Even
as a grown man, Carl A. DiFranco's mother came first.
They had dates, simple in nature, but the kind most
mothers never forget. There were the spontaneous trips to
Atlantic City, the surpise trip to Florida, and the quick
getaways to Delaware, where Mr. DiFranco, 27, and his
mom, Carole, would spend hours in line buying lottery
tickets and dreaming of becoming millionaires.
Of course, there were also the run-of-the- mill
moments, the days when Mr. DiFranco would return from his
job as an accountant with Marsh & McLennan, and go to
work all over again, helping his mother around the house,
trimming bushes, refinishing floors or moving furniture.
"Everytime I came up with a project, he was there for
me," Mrs. DiFranco said of her youngest child.
And this year, Mrs. DiFranco had tried to repay some
of her son's kindess, to help him, as best she could
through what seeemed the most difficult moment of his
life. On April 1, his wife, Loren, who had been born with
a chronic heart illness, died while waiting for a
transplant. "He was trying so hard to be upbeat," she
said. "But their one-year anniversary was Oct. 14th. I
keep thinking I hear him coming in the door, that I'll
have a chance to help him get through it."
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