When I was first teaching I discovered that my students who were in high school at the time had a vague idea that I lived in school. Well, not so much in school but somehow suspended in a place between their lives and school when school was not in session.

I think the same is true of adults when it comes to the professionals with whom they come in contact, when they know intellectually that those professionals lead much the same lives as they do.

This particular professional is on the not-so-tall side with really curly red hair and a decided flair for research and investigation.

Analytical would be a good descriptor. Tony Franks would probably substitute her favorite interrogator, “What is driving the bus?” This applies to most any issue for her.

Take the preparation for guiding the members of the Bear Den scouting group that she and her spouse lead. Taking into account the age and life experiences of the children, Tony and her husband designed a series of activities leading to earning a badge in forensics. And what are they doing? She and her said spouse are using fingerprinting and chromatography to figure out which of the grownups in the household ate a missing cupcake, making the activity relevant to a humorous, potentially real-life experience of the children. Not that the adults are cupcakes thieves, but it’s more tangible to children than a bank robbery or grand theft auto.

In her daily must-dos, Tony’s problem-solving refrain keeps things moving. Take food prep. It takes research and alert analysis to figure out what to serve for dinner to a family with multiple food intolerances. What foods don’t include gluten, dairy, nuts, etc.? A daunting task, but her ability to analyze the problem and find a solution has led to a personal collection of delicious recipes.

In the Franks household, there are additional recipes for family togetherness which include regular face time with grandma and a child’s practice conversations in Spanish, even though grandma speaks Italian.

“Close enough,” Tony says. It’s the effort and the connection that are important.

And it’s that importance of being present to others that led Tony to establish her own non-profit, Made with Love, CNY, a project that supplies a box of essentials, think underwear, hygiene and art supplies to anyone in need. The project has included the Marcellus Food Pantry for seniors, for kids and adults in Auburn and the West Genesee school district. Putting the boxes together is a family affair, as is their distribution. Everyone involved is rewarded. The recipients receive the boxes while the preparers and distributors become more keenly aware of their privileged lives while understanding the common humanity that they all share.

Tony is my physical therapist.

Vertigo, dizziness and disequilibrium are all words that have been used to describe that which has kept me mostly at home for over a year. Since the causes of these maladies can be legion, I began an exhausting journey to see if anyone could pin down a way out or the amelioration of my disability. Last fall Dr. Planer told me to see a physical therapist. PT might help, he suggested.

It did and more. Tony’s acumen at analysis added the “more.” Her phrase, “What is driving this bus?” is central to my tale of woe and it’s research base gave form to her approach to my dizziness, vertigo, orthostatic hypotension (there are a lot of manifestations to my instability as I alluded to above.) We tried the Eply maneuver to quiet the annoying problem of inconsiderate particles in my ears that can confound where I think my body is in space, but that didn’t do the whole trick.

I presented her with the conundrum of neck pain, which was the result of ill-disciplined (my term, I didn’t go to PT school) muscles in my neck. Sternocleidomastoids to be exact, the muscles that allow me to move my head to the side and back. Mine were so tight that I couldn’t manage those movements. Recalcitrant SCM muscles also, according to Dr. Google can lead to: Headaches, nausea, dizziness, vertigo, ear pain and more. Now Tony knew what to do to relieve the daunting symptoms and even more important how to teach me to intervene on my own. Slowly but surely, a mixture of techniques began to show positive results… but it wasn’t just addressing the muscles themselves. Rather, Tony, using the idea behind her favorite phrase explored possible causes that contributed to my muscle mania. I learned how to better use my shoulder muscles, my quads, and pectoralis muscles instead of the SCM group which, apparently I had asked to do more than they were designed to do.

An integral part of the process is the dialog between the therapist and the patient, uncovering the symptoms, the relationship between symptoms and between life’s daily activities. What’s driving the bus? The answers were more appropriately answers to “What multiple things are driving this bus?”

And so, between Tony’s expert manipulations and my learnings, we discussed how to make meringue cookies, how meaningful it is to share from privilege, the importance of family and to be open to learning new things, doing the research to find out who, what or how many are driving the bus to what destinations.