Happy Birthday to Sister Nancy!

 Nancy Lynn.......In our family of 5 kids, the boys are the oldest (Steve, who is 5 years older than me, man he is REALLY old....) and the youngest (Kevin, who was born in 1960, always the easiest to figure out how old he is) and the girls (or the "princesses" as Steve likes to remember us with such fondness) fill in the middle.  I am the oldest and then 3 years later came sweet Nancy, and then 3 years after that came Carol.  So Nancy truly is the "middle" child in about every sense possible.


As a toddler Nancy had this white hair!!!  Mine was red.  Don't know how that happens.  But as you see her in these precious photos I have chosen, is as you know her.  Always with that wonderful smile.

She is the tallest of us girls at about 5'10".  She is the one of us who can sing, or is at least confident and willing enough to do it out loud.

Because we were each 3 years apart, we never got to attend school together.  Once I left high school, Nancy came in the next year.  She left and then Carol arrived.  She left and in came Kevin.

Nancy had no problem following behind me.  She was probably voted friendliest girl (while I was voted biggest flirt, which is basically the same thing, right?)

She also holds the record in our family of being the only one to wreck TWO family cars on the same day.....she was driving one of them, with a friend following her in the other one.  Nancy came over the crest of a hill and hit a disabled car in the road and then her friend Sheryl came right behind and plowed into Nancy.

Our first backyard wedding was with Nance.  She married Cliff on a warm July afternoon and in the following years birthed Angela and then Joey.   Darling Angela decided to be breech so Nancy had a scheduled c-section to deliver her.  Then when she was pregnant with Joey, she was working as a daycamp counselor in West Seattle and she tripped over a log, fell and found herself in preterm labor which couldn't be stopped.  So the good folks at Valley Medical put her in an ambulance and shipped her off to the U of W to have a repeat C-Section with her 32 week baby.  After arriving there, they prepped her and took her into surgery, but thankfully the OB decided to do an "exam" before

doing an incision.  Told Nancy to give a good cough and out came Joey.  Failed C-section!!!  Under 4 pounds but incredibly healthy.  In fact went home in just a few days.  I had arrived after the birth (NOT an OBRN in those days yet).  She was in a bed and first thing she told me was that she hadn't been able to see much of the baby yet.  So I corralled a wheelchair, put her in it and found our way to the nursery.  Guess I knew my calling, even then.  

Nancy had an in home daycare for many, many years.  Some of the parents and children she cared for became lifelong friends.

Which is easy to do with Miss Nancy.  Sadly Cliff died and she became a young widow with two preteen children.  And as hard and sad as it was, she was always strong and kept moving forward.
Went back to school, getting an education in computer sciences where she met her Terry.  They married a few years later and continue to live as close to happily ever after as they can.
This final photo shows her holding darling Henry.
Thanks Nancy, for being such a great sister, and a great friend.
I love you.  I miss our ability to get together easily.  See you soon.