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Charlie Traffas
Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com.
What's New
2008-12-01 14:57:00
Obituary
Question: What’s new? (My columns deal with this question that I received several months ago. Because this question “opened the door” so to speak on me being able to write about a lot things, the sender may regret she had ever sent it. In any event, this is another month and here is another article. I thought the following might be most appropriate as we begin a new year. (Writing it has been most “enlightening” to me.)
Answer: I am presently reading a book featuring some of the sermons from the late Archbishop, Fulton J. Sheen. I remember as a child, my dad never missing one of his shows. I was more into playing, watching cartoons and programs like the Little Rascals. I never understood back then what Dad saw in this program, instead of watching the “important stuff” like I was watching. After all it was a sermon, like the ones I would squirm through on Sundays. Only now that I am older have I acquired a “taste” for such information. The sermon I read most recently was about our Lord on the cross when he said, “It is finished.” The sermon was about what He meant when He said this. I won’t go into all of it, except for sharing with you one thing Archbishop Sheen said in his reflection at the end of the sermon that struck a strong note with me. He asked that his viewers think about the end of their life, and how the phrase, “It is finished”, will apply to them. He said one of the things that can be most revealing to anyone is to imagine reading one’s own obituary. That’s not something we get a chance to do that often. He didn’t use the word “shocking” but I’m sure he would have done so if he would have thought about it. He then said a wonderful exercise one can do is to write your own obituary, as if you died yesterday and were reading it this morning. I decided to write mine and see if I could experience some of the things he was talking about. One of the things I found to be most glaring in this process is…that while I, like most, would like to have as many good things said about me as possible, I didn’t want to leave the last thing that would ever be said about me to be some piece filled with inaccuracies or empty boasts. I decided I would be most candid and not try to “con” anyone about anything, particularly me…particularly now. Francis C. (Charlie) Traffas, died yesterday of a sudden illness. Funeral services are pending. He was preceded in death by his father, Francis Albert Traffas, and son Dusty. He is survived by his wife Brenda, sons Mike and Dan, daughter Genae, mother Betty and sister Gloria Bayer (Norman) of Wichita, sister Mary Ryan (Ron) of Lincoln, NE, brother Rory (Jacque) of Medicine Lodge, KS, brother Tim (Pat) and sister Kathy Dohm (John) of Sharon, KS, three little “girls” (Trixie, Millie and Libbie of the home (dogs)), nieces, nephews, extended family, friends and business associates. Charlie was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Wichita, the Knights of Columbus, and Rolling Hills Country Club. He was president of Chart Marketing, Inc., an advertising agency, marketing firm and publishing company. He was involved in media, marketing and insurance for many years, having worked for KFDI Radio in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and for the Eck Insurance Agency, Inc. since the early ‘90s. He was publisher of The Q & A Times, author of “Salvation and Sales”, and “Our Way to the Way”, a book that he was writing at the time of his death. In his later years, Charlie always professed a love of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, but too many times he failed to love them as much as he professed, as evidenced by the many things he did wrong. He loved his wife, Brenda, though all too often he showed her a fraction of the kind of love she deserved. Spending time with his family, friends, golf buddies and business associates was something he thoroughly enjoyed, although while doing so, he didn’t spend as much time listening and inquiring about the things affecting them, as he did thinking about himself (there seems to have been a pattern here). Charlie was a big sports’ fan and played several throughout his life, although he was never that good at any of them. He spent many hours in business in a number of different interests, often at the expense of the time he should have been spending with others. Charlie wasn’t much for moderation. He thought “more was always better.” It never was. While he supported his church and other charities, he could have done more. He spent some time ministering to the sick, the dying and the imprisoned, but as he did with everything good...he could have done much more. He had a fondness for marketing and business and tried to teach his appreciation of both to many others, failing more often than succeeding, for reasons he never understood. He was a stickler for proper management and organization in business, but his style was often insensitive to others and probably hurt as much or more than it helped. Few of the things he knew and taught were his own, having gleaned and learned most of them from others. Charlie used a statement throughout most of his life from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s passage entitled “Success”, “If only one person breathes easier because you have lived, you have succeeded.” Although Charlie never had too many people come back and tell him he or she was “breathing easier” because of something Charlie taught or shared with them, he always hoped there were more. All in all, Charlie wasn’t that special at anything. While he was blessed with many talents, he failed to use most of nbthem as well as he could have or should have. He didn’t do that much for those he knew and those he didn’t know. He wasn’t that great of a husband, son, brother, father, relative, friend, boss, co-worker or business associate, and he never attained the “success” he wanted to attain. At the time of his death, Charlie was sincerely sorry for any one he hurt or disappointed throughout his life. Although it is doubtful anyone would care to make a donation, one can be made, if so inclined, in lieu of flowers, to The Lord’s Diner or to The Guadalupe Clinic…nothing against florists. Once finished, I read what I wrote several times. Days later I am still reading and re-reading it. I think I will keep it and read it often...hopefully updating it. It’s interesting what it has done thus far to my priorities. While I am still doing things I wish I wasn’t doing, I’m thinking more about what I do. One thing is certain - it is a most powerful exercise. Somewhere around the third or fourth time I read it, I think I got what Archbishop Sheen was trying to get across. I thought to myself, “I can do better than this. This year…God willing...I’m going to try.”
 
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