Sentence:  Under the circumstances , I had difficulty keeping up with the conversation on the phone , but when I hung up I was reasonably certain that Francesca had wanted to remind me of our town meeting the next evening , and how important it <WSD>was</WSD> that Hank and I be there . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)