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TOP STORY OF THE DAY, brought to you free by WICU: French remembered fondly for kind heart, generous soul
If you happen to be driving by Calcutta Cemetery in Carbon on Saturday afternoon and think a circus has come to town, you would be wrong.
People might think that way, though, because there will be some rather unconventional funeral music coming from the French Family Calliope at the service for the late Dr. Charles French, who passed away August 6.
French was a long-time physician who branched out into the funeral home business in 1995.
He had many interests throughout his life, including collecting and restoring old cars and participating in numerous civic activities and charitable causes.
Steve McCullough recalls how the calliope came into the picture.
“Many years ago, for the Fall Parade which we used to have in Brazil, the IU Calliope came to town and parked down on 59 close to my mom and dad’s house,” he said. “I happened to be there, and I went down there to look at it. I got to play that big calliope in the parade that day, off the cuff.
“A few years ago, Chuck called me one day and asked me what I was doing, and I was out of school so I went down to their house. In the driveway when I got there was this big calliope he had purchased.”
McCullough said French really liked the sound of the huge instrument and bought it for him to play at various functions such as the Christmas in the Park parade.
He added that long-time Santa Claus Bill Beeler always wanted McCullough to ride in front of him in the parade, and a similar tribute was made at Beeler’s funeral.
“I led the funeral procession to Clearview Cemetery playing the calliope,” he said. “It’s extremely loud, and I have to wear earplugs when I play it. We have had a lot of fun with it.”
McCullough and French went to Brazil High School together.
“He was a year ahead of me, but we always went to the ballgames,” he said. “I’m going to play the Brazil fight song and the IU fight song.
While Chuck was enamored with the sound of the calliope, his widow did not exactly hold the same opinion.
“Chuck loved it, and we went to Michigan to get this darned thing,” Susie French recalls. “We’ve had it for years, and I can’t stand it. But the kids thought it would be a good thing to play it at the cemetery in their dad’s honor so he could have one last song on that darned thing.”
Chuck and Susie French were married for 37 years, first meeting at Union Hospital in Terre Haute when he helped with the birth of her son.
“He was in his residency, and was always my son’s doctor,” she recalls. “After I was divorced, I ended up asking him out on a date and that was that.”
An example of French’s high ethical standards led to that infrequent method of couples getting together at that time.
“He would have never, never asked me out because he had been my son’s doctor and that was frowned upon in the medical community,” she said. “We had a good run, and a lot of people can’t say that.”
Susie respected many things about her late husband, one of those being that if he started something he always finished it.
“He was not somebody to go half done, and I always knew I could count on that,” she said. “He always took his role as a provider very seriously, and he would have never, ever jeopardized our family financially in any way.”
Susie recalled Thursday afternoon that a friend of theirs had visited her earlier in the day and they discussed Chuck’s versatility.
“Our friend said that Chuck was raised by a family involved in business, and he not only thought of medicine but he was very diverse,” she said. “He liked his antique cars and tractors and would say ‘I could built that tractor’. I can do that.”
Chuck spent his last 13 years in a wheelchair after suffering a thoracic aortic dissection, but he did not complain about his situation.
“He was always very thankful of everyone and appreciative of what everyone had done for him,” Susie continued. ”This 13 years he has been paralyzed, there’s not a day that has gone by that he hasn’t thanked me multiple times for things I have done. He’s always been a person who would help somebody, but he didn’t want to be in the limelight for it.”
Susie noted that he would give some of his patients money to buy groceries, and to make sure they could afford what they needed for their medical care.
“There is one particular friend from his past who he did a lot for,” she said. “They grew up together and they rode bikes on 340 together. For whatever reason, this man had struggled in life. I guess he made some poor choices in life and ended up just not being able to take care of himself.”
Susie was looking through Chuck’s checkbook several years ago, and he had written him checks so he could have groceries.
“He didn’t tell me about that, and kept that to himself,” she said. “He really helped a lot of people that even I don’t know about.”
Susie also remembers the time a few summers ago when Chuck and Mitch Reberger delivered backpack meals for the food program.
“Chuck was driving his van then, and Mitch would go in and out,” she said. “One year, a teacher at Meridian Elementary school asked him if he would tutor one of her students in math.”
At first, Chuck wasn’t sure if he would be good in that role or not.
“I told him to just try it, and they ended up being together for a semester,” she said. “I hope that made an impact on that child, a doctor still practicing medicine and coming out in a wheelchair to help you with your math skills.”
Steve Bell joined French as one of a group of high school friends known as the ROMEOs (“Retired Older Men Eating Out”) who reconnected later in life and had weekly lunches together.
“I’ve known Chuck since 1963,” Bell recalls. “We met at Jackson Township Elementary School. He didn’t get their until the eighth grade, and we went all the way through high school and college together.”
Bell said that, like a lot of friends, they ran around together but grew apart over the years.
“Once we got closer to retirement age, we started meeting once a month to reminisce and talk about our families,” he noted. “Chuck was one of the founders of the group.”
Bell fondly recalls that Chuck’s dad started the Tracer Trailer horse trailer business. One thing stood out.
“I actually watched him free-hand paint stripes on the side of the trailers,” he said. “Now they use those stick-on things. I never saw such a steady hand. He wasn’t a surgeon, but he could have been a good one.”
While French was widely accomplished in his business and family lives, Bell noted there was another side to him as well.
“He could be the life of the party,” Bell noted. “He liked to tell jokes, and he liked a good joke. That’s part of what we do when we’re together — we tease one another.”
Like Susie French, Bell was also impressed with how Chuck handled life after being confined to the wheelchair.
“It changed him, but as far as personality he didn’t really change and never complained about it,” Bell said. “ He would sometimes joke about being stuck in the chair. ‘Make room for the crippled guy’ and stuff like that.”
Bell said that Chuck’s difficult life adjusting to a world not always friendly to the handicapped taught a lot to the ROMEOs.
“We all think that we make room for folks with disabilities in terms of the parking spaces and entries into restaurants and things,” he said. “Just going out with him on a monthly basis and trying to find a parking place really opened our eyes.
“We’d come out of a restaurant and a car would be blocking the space,” Bell added. “There were some restaurants he couldn’t even get into because they weren’t handicapped accessible.”
Witnessing French’s trials and tribulations really taught a lot to Bell and the others.
“He made us keenly aware that we think we are on top of things and we have it all figured out, but we really don’t,” he said. “Chuck was a hero to us for what he endured the last few years. He never complained, and we couldn’t help but admire everything he did to try to have a normal life.”
How to honor Chuck French
The family requests that if friends so desire, they may make donations directed to the Wabash Valley Community Foundation, the French Family Fund or to a charity of their choice.