MADISON TOWNSHIP — Sheila Frania’s hands work quickly, her red-handled snippers snip-snipping at the tough branches that hold heavy bunches of golden grapes.

The work is hard and the sun is hot on her neck. Beside her, friends pick the final harvest of Tim Frania, his life’s work captured in the tender fruit on the vine.

The Vintners in Northeast Ohio (VINO) wine club stood beside Sheila Frania along the long rows of grapevine Sunday to harvest her husband’s final season of grapes.

“For eight years this club has taught people how to make wine,” club president Richard Fellenstein said. “Tim taught us far more than just wine.”

The club volunteers to help at the Frania acres in Madison Township and have for years in exchange for a big meal and Tim Frania’s tips on wine making. Tim died in August of melanoma, leaving Sheila with eight acres of grapes to bring in. The work has been hard without Tim’s guidance and no harvest has been as emotional, Fellenstein said.

“This is the harvest of a lifetime,” Fellenstein said. “We know how much this land and these grapes meant to Tim and we are still here for Sheila. We are still here for Tim.”

Frania, 65, died in August. Sheila Frania said she was so focused on her husband’s cancer treatments and hospice care, she hardly thought about the grape harvest.

“I really didn’t think about all this until Tim was gone. Then I was just overwhelmed with the support, the unbelievable support, his friends gave me,” she said.

The harvest will be used in Laurello Vineyard’s wine. Kim Laurello, owner of Laurello Vineyards, said the group has stepped up to pick, “the harvest of a lifetime.”

“A lot of people forget what goes into wine is a lot more than just grapes,” Laurello said. “Tim’s work out in the fields, our hands picking the fruit, it all goes into the bottle.”

Fellenstein said Tim, who was known for his guitar playing, winemaking and sense of humor, would pluck at his guitar or violin while the crew ate dinner.

“It was always a celebration to get the harvest in,” he said. “Hand picking would last four or five weekends and Tim would still plan dinner, possum stew as he would call it. Or Rocky Mountain spotted owl. Many of the new pickers didn’t know what to think and were hesitant to eat. We never really knew what kind of meat we were eating.”

The wine in Tim Frania’s life was celebrated to the day he died when Fellenstein bounded up the steps of the Frania home, a gold medal in his hands.

“I took one of Tim’s wines —Cabernet Franc — and entered it in the competition at Debonne Vineyards,” Fellenstein said. “The judges gave it a high score, enough for a gold medal. Two weeks later the medals arrived at my house. I rushed to gibe it to Tim, though he was too sick to receive it. But he knew his grapes had won a gold medal. He passed away that day, but he knew the grapes had won.”

Sheila Frania said the day, the harvest and the hearty meal that followed belongs to her husband.