Francis travelled from Holland to Edmonton on the troop ship, the Kota Inten in April of 1948. A week later he moved to his uncle's small range in Houston B.C. where he was employed for two years as a farm hand. After that, he became a Lumber Jack. In 1952 he moved back to Edmonton and, after a number of occupations, he ended up as a Life Insurance Agent for 30 years. He was forced into early retirement after a bicycling accident, which left him an amputee. This represented a dramatic life change. Prior to the accident, Francis was an athlete who ran marathons, could bike a hundred kilometres on a given day, who loved backpacking, and who canoed the Coppermine River to the Arctic. After his recovery, however, he started to swim and he is thankful that he is able to swim to keep in shape.