“Brother” Frank Albrecht of Lancaster, Pa., is having, by his own ­description, the best year of his life.

That might surprise anyone who knows that Albrecht, 65, was diagnosed in June 2023 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive neuro­generative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Then again, anyone who knows him is likely not at all surprised.

It’s probably safe to say no one has ever met Albrecht who didn’t experience his characteristic enthusiastic interest in them, for a minute or an hour. Now, he says, the love he’s shown to others is coming back to him “lavishly.”

“I feel blessed to be alive to be able to receive [from others] before I go to be with the Lord,” he said. “That’s why I say this is the best year of my life yet.

“I am able to process with very deep and special friends how good life is, how precious every moment is, and how every single day is an adventure.

“All the love I gave through my 65 years seems like it’s now coming to fruition. I really believe it’s faith that drives people to want to [care for] the least of these, and now I’m one of the least. It’s a very humbling experience.”

Albrecht adopted the moniker “brother” in the 1990s.

“All of the world are my brothers and sisters,” he says, greeting most people as “brother” or “sister,” too.

He began working in the School District of Lancaster in 1981. He left King Elementary for Colombia, where he served with his family for several years in the 1990s, and returned to the district’s McCaskey High School.

After his diagnosis, he planned to work one more year at McCaskey and then retire. He made it until the middle of March, greeting students every morning in his wheelchair. The district held a farewell party for him on March 29 that nearly 800 people attended.

“Many students let me know that the talks I had with them helped them turn a corner and regain hope that allowed them to graduate,” Albrecht said. “Many told me they were proud of themselves for starting college, for finishing college, for being in harmony with their families.”

He created his role of peer mediation coordinator after he developed the district’s first student mediation program in 1990, following a fight that led to a ­fatal stabbing at McCaskey. He has been training 32 student mediators a year for a quarter-century.

In 1987, he started REACH, a student-led after-school club that promotes practices for good mental health and still continues. A few years ago, he renamed the school’s in-school suspension classroom “McCaskey Reflection Center” and staffed it with peer mediators to help students in conflict.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Albrecht went every day to homes of 25 students at risk of not graduating. All earned their diplomas on time.

When he received a citation for exemplary service from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in March, a McCaskey junior told a reporter: “He changed my life. He changed everybody else’s life. You’ll never meet another person like him” — a sentiment echoed by current and past students.

Albrecht’s special connection with children and youth extends to his congregation, Laurel Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, where he has been a youth leader for decades.

Longtime friend Linda Shelly said: “In his roles at church and at McCaskey, Frank challenged youth to believe in themselves and their potential. He chose to continue in his roles as long as he could, and I can only imagine how inspiring it has been for youth to experience him continuing with such a positive approach to life, while dealing with his own rapid loss of health.”

Linda Witmer, a longtime Laurel Street member, said: “One of the Laurel Street youth was finishing high school and wanted to drive a truck but did not have the confidence. He studied and took the test but failed part of it. Frank kept encouraging him to keep trying. He would have quit, but Frank kept telling him he could do it.

“Today he is a truck driver and doing really well. He is so grateful to Frank.

“There many stories like this where youth felt Frank’s support and he motivated them with his love to keep working to accomplish their goals.”

Albrecht has a genetic variation of ALS (his sister Judy died of it in 2016) that progresses faster than some types.

He is now confined to a wheelchair, needs a BiPAP machine to help him breathe and has little lung capacity for talking. He’s been able to dictate some of his thoughts to friends and family.

He is still at home with his wife, Elizabeth Soto, along with healthcare workers during the day and a network of volunteers around the clock to help with basic hygiene, eating and suction of mucus. Frank and Elizabeth’s two daughters are in Ph.D. programs at Pennsylvania universities and come as often as they can.

Phil Hostetter, a former ­McCaskey counselor and longtime friend of Al­brecht’s, organizes volunteer caregivers, whom Albrecht calls his angels.

“I choose to join him in [his] joy and celebrate the things we have, rather than the things we don’t have,” he said.

Shelly said: “I sensed that Frank’s angels wanted to give back a portion of what they had received from Frank and also to receive the inspiration that comes from a person so limited in what he can do for himself, who is still striving to encourage others.”

Witmer, a retired nurse educator, is one of the caregivers.

“It is a blessing to care for him,” she said. “I am blessed with his gratitude and positive spirit in the midst of losing control of his body functions and life.”

Albrecht said: “[The prophet] Micah said love God, love justice and walk humbly with your Lord. That’s the way I’ve tried to live and, boy, I really have to put into practice the humbleness now. My faith is only getting stronger, and it will take me to the throne of God, and I praise Jesus for that.”

This article completes a project that Laurie Oswald Robinson began shortly before her death.