RAYMOND — Francine Currier’s life changed at 40 years old when she decided on a whim to start running.

Within weeks, she began training for a marathon. Soon after, she began running ultra-marathons, 50-mile and 100-mile races. Then, she began competing in triathlons – an endurance event that usually combines cycling, running and swimming. Over the past 30 years or so, she ran a total of 16 marathons, posting her best time – 3 hours and 30 minutes – in Buffalo, N.Y.

Additional Photos

Francine Currier is seen running in the Maine Coast Marathon in 1985. Mrs. Currier took up running when she was 40, and turned it into a 30-year passion, including a number of marathons and triathlons. Family photo

“She absolutely had focus and strength,” said Valerie Currier, of South Portland, the younger of her three children. “She decided what she wanted to do and focused on it. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do.”

A few years ago, Mrs. Currier’s life turned upside down when doctors discovered she had lung cancer. She was a non-smoker.

She died on Saturday at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough. She was 73.

Mrs. Currier was remembered by her family this week as a strong, healthy and vibrant woman, who lived life to its fullest. Her daughter said she took care of herself by eating mostly healthy and organic foods, exercising regularly, and having a positive outlook on life. She said her family was stunned by the doctor’s diagnosis.

“It’s difficult to understand how this could happen to such a strong, talented and healthy woman,” she said. “If my mom can get cancer, anyone can. She is the last person I thought would ever die of lung cancer. She was the healthiest person I’ve ever known. I guess God needed an angel.”

Mrs. Currier grew up in Portland and attended Deering High School. She rose from a rough and tumultuous childhood to achieve an extraordinary life, hallmarked by a loving family and a successful career.

She was the loving wife of Robert J. Currier, of Raymond, her husband for 51 years. The couple met at a dance. A month before that, he noticed her walking down Congress Street in Portland.

“For all the years they were married, he thought my mother was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen,” her daughter said. “There’s no doubt, they had a great love. They had a wonderful life. It was always an adventure.”

At age 50, Mrs. Currier entered the work force and took a position as a receptionist with a local real estate agency. Within a year-and-a-half, she began managing Breakwater at Spring Point, a large condo project in South Portland. She also obtained real estate licenses for Maine, Hawaii and Florida. Around 1986, she and her husband moved to Hawaii, where she sold vacation rentals for a few years. They returned again in 1995 for another couple of years. That year, she trained for the Ironman triathlon. At one point, the couple also lived in South Carolina and Florida, where she sold vacation rental properties. Currier said her parents “bounced around the country” until 2000.

“They were able to have an adventure because of her real estate licenses,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Currier had a passion for gardening and maintained impeccable gardens at her home in Raymond. In her 60s, she developed a passion for art and often turned things that were considered junk into works of art, her daughter said.

Mrs. Currier received aggressive amounts of chemotherapy and radiation treatment for her cancer and remained cancer-free until October of 2010. About six weeks later, doctors said her cancer had returned.

“A couple weeks ago, she accepted she would never win this battle,” her daughter said. “We will celebrate her life, but right now it’s hard. She was a tiny woman, but she was big in our lives. She was the center of our family.”

Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at: mcreamer@pressherald.com

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