Nancy

I am sad to tell you all that our dear friend, Nancy, passed away today at three in the afternoon. She battled cancer for three years, and most of that time, she felt relatively little pain, which was a miracle, considering the nature of her illness. During a rapid decline, hospice was there to keep her comfortable and free from pain, and she was surrounded constantly by people who loved her. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts; now, please turn them increasingly and faithfully to her three children and her husband, John.

Martin and I will fly back for the memorial service on Thursday, stay for a few days, and fly back to Seattle. In mid-August we will conclude our summer travels and settle back at home. I have felt so torn in the past week, knowing Nancy was so sick and I was so far away. I thought for a while I would be able to reach home in time to say goodbye to her in person, but her body's decline was astonishingly rapid. I was so grateful I was able to talk to her on the phone, to say goodbye and tell her I loved her.

Nancy and John were the first friends we met in Pennsylvania--they walked up our front steps with a plate of cookies and their children days after we moved in. She and I had many long, warm conversations; she often took care of me when I was miserable early in my third pregnancy; we could chat about gardens for hours, and I named her "Nancy Greenthumb" for her productive gardens and her love of all vegetables grown in good dirt.

Her mind was constantly alive and fertile, and not only did she care deeply about the education of her children, but she loved books and new ideas. She and I even audited one of Martin's writing classes together, and she also attended one of his summer writing classes with members of our community. I loved cooking vegetable curry for her and making her desserts with no sugar or fats (first she was vegan and then she was on a very restricted diet). She was gentle and kind to my children, she laughed often, and very near the end of her life, she was still walking about the neighborhood. I remember clearly watching her and her daughter walk away from my house, her daughter slipping her arm through her mother's.

Nancy helped me think about God in challenging and wonderful ways; she painted icons and understood incarnation in many ways; she loved her children and my children, and she was a woman I could call sister. I feel fortunate indeed to call Nancy my friend. I will celebrate her for the rest of my life.