Grace Frank would support the initiative, but definitely not the name, agree those who knew her well.
The new permanent supportive housing project on Woolwich Street – conversion of the former Parkview Motel into bachelor apartments, a shared kitchen and more to house people currently experiencing homelessness – will be known as Grace Gardens in Frank’s honour.
“She wouldn’t want it, but I think it’s appropriate,” Sister Christine Leyser, founder of the Welcome In Drop-In Centre which is behind the project, said of acknowledging Frank’s longtime support in this way. “That’s not what that family was about. They were really very private.”
Frank, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 98, was a supporter of the drop-in centre from nearly the beginning 35 years ago and financially contributed to a number of other initiatives intended to help people in need – as did her brothers Charles and Jack, as well as her sister Helen.
In addition to many one-off contributions, together they made monthly donations to the drop-in centre, said second-cousin Charlie Nagge, explaining the amount remained the same as the number of siblings dwindled. Grace was the last to die.
“It was always there, but it was always anonymous. That’s the way she preferred it … and that’s the way her brothers did it,” Nagge said. “There’s a list of things that happened that nobody’s ever going to know about and that’s the way she wanted it.”
The siblings were financially “comfortable” and enjoyed the fact they could contribute to making the community a better place by supporting the hard work of Sister Christine and others at the drop-in centre in particular, but not exclusively, he added.
“They looked at Christine as one really, really genuine person who was very much concerned about the wellbeing of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised. Every penny that came in to Christine went right back out to her people and that impressed them so much,” Nagge explained. “When you gave (Sister Christine) a donation, you knew someone in need of help was going to get it.”
When she died, Grace, a former University of Guelph professor, willed a “sizeable” donation to the drop-in centre, of which $600,000 was earmarked for the permanent supportive housing project, explained Gail Hoekstra, executive director of the drop-in centre. Those funds have been applied to the $3.8 million purchase of the motel.
Grace would often stop by the drop-in centre to chat on Saturdays after visiting the Guelph Farmers’ Market or invite Sister Christine over to her Ariss home for a cup of tea and conversation. Sometimes Nagge or his son, Paul, who lived in nearby Maryhill until about 20 years ago, joined them.
“They always had big gardens, flower gardens and big vegetable gardens. They had a lovely place in Ariss,” the retired nun noted. “The word grace really carries such beauty to it.
“All that sort of fits together (in the name Grace Gardens) as if by divine providence.”
Hoekstra approached Sister Christine and Nagge about naming the new facility after Grace before the decision was announced. Nagge admits to having some reservations about the idea, given that Grace preferred to remain anonymous with her charitable contributions, but ultimately warmed up to it.
“Fame and notoriety and recognition was something that they avoided,” he said of the Frank siblings. “It’s pretty wonderful stuff, in my opinion.
“I’ll take the heat when I go to heaven.”
