Nancy was in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and I came up from Tennessee to be with her. I arrived on Monday and we spent that day and Tuesday talking about personal matters and helping her decide how to approach her recovery from the fungal infection that had invaded her body. She was perfectly lucid and other than some pain, which she was handling very well, she was feeling pretty good. As the week progressed she began to suffer more pain and other discomforts and by Wednesday evening she was at the point that she became vocally unresponsive other than to complain of pain and being hot. By Thursday she didn't seem to be able to respond properly to questions and couldn't put words together that would make any sense. She had experienced something similar to this at least once before where she knew what she wanted to say but the words didn't come out right. She would still try to turn over when asked to but wouldn't answer any questions. We did all we could to help which was very little with a lot of effort. By the end of the week they got the pain under control and she was able to rest some but still was unable to react to anyone.
During this time I daily received several phone calls and she had several close friends who came to visit and check on her and some who stayed and spent several days with her, setting with her and offering words of comfort and giving foot massages and fanning her to cool her off and anything else they thought would help her. Above all they were giving her a lot of love and showing deep concern for her well being.
As I observed this wondering if Nancy would remember any of them being there this week I thought out loud that I needed to get a little notebook so her friends could leave her a note about their visit and leave her any other message they wished. Well one young lady (Nancy's friend Kana) who was in the room at the time quietly took it upon herself to do something about that. She went down to the gift shop and found the perfect little guest book for Nancy's room and wrote the most heart touching words in it. (click here to see that book)I decided at that time I wanted to put together a few pages in a book for Nancy to let her know what went on while she was out of touch and to give her friends the opportunity to send her words of encouragement. Everyday during this week I had been taking calls from many of her concerned friends and I knew I wouldn't have any trouble getting volunteers to write in the book. I wanted, at that time, to put something together so Nancy would know how many close friends she had made and kept over the years.
Well Nancy did come back to us on Tuesday of the next week and was able to read the guestbook that was in her room so that was great. However I wanted to record the words coming in from some of her friends who couldn't get to Johns Hopkins so I started saving emails and also asked her friends to send pictures and Nancy stories they wanted to share and I would try to use them in the booklet.
I was getting responses from her friends when Nancy suddenly passsed away on November 20, 2010. I was so touched by the emails that came in after that I decided to turn that booklet into a memorial booklet for her and have been encouraged to do so by many of her friends. Because it began to grow like it has I decided to turn it into a Memorial web page so that all her friends and family would be able to know how well loved she was by everyone who knew her. So I continue to ask for pictures and stories they would like to share and this page is the results.
Nancy's Cuz,
Darrell Cornett
[email protected]
......Nancy & cousin Darrell 1947 ..
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A Nancy Movie........
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On her 2008 visit home we were very active and visited a lot of places Nancy hadn't seen in years. My sister and her husband came to visit with Nancy while she was home and we had just eaten some banana bread and I had been taking some pictures when Nancy started one of her stories. I quitely placed my camera on the table with the video setting turned on and captured this video of Nancy telling one of her stories. I don’t think she ever saw the video.
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Left to right- Jenna, Barbara Ann and Nancy
Nancy insisted on riding the Carousal at Coolidge Park, Chattanooga, TN
on her last visit home in September 2009. We had a great time as always.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Darrell
