“Work is love made visible”

By MARGIE O’LOUGHLIN

Beverly Frarck is living proof of the quote by Kahlil Gibran, “Work is love made visible.” She has worked as a switchboard operator for 41 years, answering the phones and putting people’s minds at ease at the former Midway Hospital site (1700 University Ave. W.) - now part of Health East. Frarck, a spunky blonde with deep brown eyes, is 83 years old and has absolutely no plans to retire from her full time job.

If her boss, switchboard supervisor Kathleen Farrell, could use only one word to describe Frarck, it would be dependable. What else would you call someone who starts their shift every morning at 4:30am, rarely misses a day of work and gives most of her PTO (paid time off) to co-workers in need?

“I love my job because of the people here,” Frarck says.

Considering herself from “the old-fashioned school of switchboard operators,” Frarck applied for the job she has today in 1973. She had raised her five children and was eager to begin work at St. Joseph’s, wearing a crisp, white hospital-issue uniform. Things have changed quite a bit since then! The Health East merger in 1986 combined four very different hospitals: Lutheran St. John’s, Catholic St. Joe’s (Minnesota’s first hospital), Swedish Lutheran Bethesda and Woodwinds Medical Center. Health East aims to respect all religions and traditions. People call the central switchboard, where Frarck works, with questions about all four hospitals, 14 clinics, medical transportation, outpatient/ambulatory services and emergencies.

Switchboard operators do much more than just forward calls. They are really communication coordinators, getting calls to the right places, but also in the right format, so they can be acted on immediately. Speed is of the essence; Frarck estimates she has more than 300 work-related telephone numbers and extensions committed to memory. A two inch thick red manual on her desk contains protocols and codes in every color of the rainbow: Code Blue for heart attack, Code Green for security, Code Pink for baby in distress, etc.

In addition to being fast, Frarck believes it is important to be kind. The switchboard operator is the first point of contact for someone calling Health East. People are often surprised to hear a human voice answer the phone. “Are you for real?” she’s often asked. Frarck’s compassionate style of communication is something she has learned by doing over the years. She especially tries to reach out to sons and daughters calling to inquire about their parents in hospice care. Frarck cared for her own mother during the last month of her struggle with cancer. “Do you have someone there with you?” she always asks them. Frarck understands how it feels to watch a parent die.

St. Joe’s is the only hospital in the Health East system that still broadcasts live prayer, and Frarck is the voice of the 7am prayer, reading it out loud in segments because the public address system can only broadcast in short bits. She’s been reading the same prayers (a different one for each day of the week) for the past 15 years since her predecessor, Sister Florence, died. The sound of her voice is familiar and comforting, as is the sight of her reading wearing her pearl lanyard and angel brooch.

Frarck suffered a heart attack herself 1.5 years ago and was expertly cared for by a team of doctors, all of whom she knew. Her only frustration was that they made her take a whole week off from work. Her health challenges, and those of her husband, make flexibility and patience essential in their marriage of 39 years. Between the two of them, they share 7 children, 15 grand children and 10 great grand children. Frarck goes to cardiac rehab twice a week and can be seen working out vigorously on the tread mill. Greg Urtel, a security officer for Health East, said, “She runs circles around every single one of us. What is her secret?”

To hear Frarck talk, it seems that the secret to her long, happy life is creating a sense of family where ever she goes. She has a large, loving family with her husband Stan, a close-knit group of co-workers, and a real camaraderie with the other patients and their relatives in the dialysis clinic where Stan goes for treatment three days a week. She is a genuine “people-person,” and has been fortunate to find work that supports and rewards that. Recently a man called the switchboard inquiring about his brother. Frarck looked him up in the patient register, and commented that the patient’s birthday and her own were only days apart. The caller was incredulous. “You,” he said, “were born in 1931 and you’re still answering the telephones?”

“That’s right,” Frarck answered calmly. “I’m still here.”