Aunt Nancy

She died recently after a battle with cancer. She was just one of the many very strong women in my family. There were times I didn't really like her, and others where she was amazing. She was definitely the most perfect perfectionist I ever knew. She had tremendous tragedies in her life: her husband, very ill with kidney disease died too young; her oldest daughter, Anne, died very tragically after child birth at age 33; Elizabeth died at 29 from an asthma attack, and Bruce, her second son died at age 50. All of these happened in the last 15 years or so.

When I think of her I don't just think of her tragedies. I also think of her house. High on a hill in a posh neighborhood on the "Main Line" near Philadelphia. Stone and clapboard, colonial style. The driveway was awful. Steep and twisty and dangerous to navigate, either on foot or by car.

Here are random memories: tuna casserole with potato chips on it; Jesus Christ Superstar album and singing along to "What's the Buzz?" Thanksgiving at grandmas and our family had to clean up after hers, grandma's idealization of her and her kids, her dimples, her laugh, her blonde hair, her calling my dad Bobby all the time, the way she adored her kids and was very affectionate, and many memories of paling around with Elizabeth....and Anne - she hated when we called her Orphan Annie.