Ms. Frances’ sweet legacy lives on

Every morning our 28-year-old autistic son asks, “Where’s Ms. Frances?” And every morning we answer, “In heaven, Andrew. In heaven.” Eventually he will end his early- morning question and Ms. Frances will ebb from his morning query.

Because he is autistic and has a remarkable memory, he will be among the few who will always remember her. However, the impact that Frances Roy made on Andrew and mentally and/or physically challenged adults like him will leave an everlasting imprint on each person’s life.

Frances was the director and co-founder of the Delicious Delights Bakery. Not your traditional bakery, which would ordinarily serve the public with tortes, pies, scones and holiday theme cookies or coconut cakes.

Delicious Delights champions those who can measure ingredients, slice and package bread, prepare and deliver daily lunches to employee groups and make “melt in your mouth” benne seed wafers. The labor force at the bakery rarely changes, and those who are lucky enough to be chosen from a long list of applicants, stay.

This is their peer group with the same issues in any other work place. They love, they get aggravated with each other and they crave anyone to just acknowledge them.

Frances Roy died on November 7, and indeed, if ever there was a heaven for “I can and I will” people, Frances will be leading the pack even in her motorized wheel chair. Proud to the core of being a Charleston native, she had a strong family support system. She was a Bishop England product and excelled in sports, especially basketball.

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church was convenient to her Byrnes Down home and dalmatians.

She helped her husband, Joe, when he was on the Dock Street Theater stage for the Annual Traynor Ferrilo Funtime Shows when even her daughters tap danced.

The list goes on, but the superlative that Frances will be remembered for will be her love for the “special” people and how she worked so hard to give them a chance to learn a trade in their own special way.

They might not be magna cum laudes, but to her, they were magna cum special.

Because of the constant need for supplies and maintenance of the ovens and the delivery vans, updating of slicers, scales, etc., the bakery can always use donations. I’m sending my check to Delicious Delights Bakery, 1848 Wallace School Road, Charleston, S.C. 29407, in memory of Frances. I know my dollars will be put to good use.

Will the bakery continue now that Frances has gone to heaven? You bet. She left a little part of herself in Debbie, her daughter who is now the program director.

The legacy continues.

Susanne Banks

Stono View Drive

Johns Island