Frances B. Caspar Obituary

Frances Elizabeth Browne Caspar, 80, of Avon, died Monday February 8, 2016 surrounded by her loving family, including her husband George, and children Jennifer and Victoria and George. She lived a remarkable life and will be remembered as an intelligent, independent, funny, generous, intensely sensitive and compassionate woman. Born in the Bronx July 6, 1935, she grew up in Great Neck and Roslyn, NY. Her mother took care of Fran and her two brothers alone through the long difficult years during WWII while their father, a Lt. Colonel in the US Army, was away on US bases and in Europe. Fran studied at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven before transferring to Cornell University, where she received her BS in Nursing. She also received an MA from Columbia Teachers College. She found her professional calling as a nurse in New York and San Francisco, and she taught nursing at Cornell. After marrying George and their first child Elizabeth was born, they moved to Connecticut, where they have lived for 50 years, almost all of it in Avon. She made herself indispensable to the community by many years of volunteer work with the Farmington Valley Visiting Nurses Association, where she served in numerous roles, most notably as board member, board president and a founding member of its hospice volunteer program. Her first daughter Elizabeth died tragically at the age of three and this experience marked Fran and made her particularly sensitive to other people's suffering from grief. She is remembered as someone who was always quick to offer helpful words and acts of support to friends and family in need, and she was committed to grief related volunteer activities. She was an active communicant of the Church of Saint Ann, where she also served on the Bereavement Committee. Fran loved to play bridge and Scrabble, travel and bowl. She was an avid reader and did the NY Times crossword puzzle in ink every day. Besides her husband George and children Jennifer, Vicky and George, she leaves a daughter-in-law Louanne Caspar and son-in-law Matthew Eichler, five grandchildren: Harper, Allie, Caroline, Harry, and Margot, a brother Jack and two sisters-in-law, Honora Browne and Mary Lou Browne as well as her husband's siblings Ruth Caspar, OP, Joseph Caspar and Helen Quistorff and siblings-in-law Rita Caspar and Kirk Quistorff, and numerous nieces and nephews. Besides her parents and her daughter Elizabeth, she is predeceased by her brother Thomas Browne Jr., son-in-law Eric Altshule and brother-in-law Phil Caspar. Her family will receive friends Friday, February 12, 2016 from 5-8 PM at the Carmon Funeral Home & Family Center, 301 Country Club Road, Avon. Family and friends may gather Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, 10:15 AM at Carmon's followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at the Church of Saint Ann at 11am. Burial will follow in St. Ann Cemetery. Contributions may be made in her memory to the Farmington Valley VNA, 8 Old Mill Lane, Simsbury, CT 06070.