BOB GALLAGHER
I am so sorry to hear that Nancy has had to end her brave fight against those huge health obstacles, and for such a long time.
My deepest sympathies are with you, Darrell and Barbara.
I will return to Maryland on Monday and will contact everyone as soon as possible on Tuesday.
Fondly,
Bob
(Bob was in India when
Nancy passed away.)
Subject: Memory of Meeting
Sent By "Robert Gallagher"
On: December 19, 2010 10:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Darrell,
I met Nancy at Bread Loaf during my last summer in my degree program, which was her first summer there. I knew her, but not as a close friend. I had been there enough years to have developed other friends, and I was busy trying to survive my last summer and get the Master's, finally. Nancy had good friends at Larch and among the faculty, and I remember admiring her sociability and gregariousness, qualities that I had not developed as fully as she. Our mutual friend Diana Heard, who graduated with me, was also a Larch resident and knew Nancy much better than I. Diana is the one who dubbed her "Nancy Tennessee," for practical reasons, because there were a couple other Nancy's at Bread Loaf that summer.
Years later, when Nancy was teaching high school English in Wilmington, Delaware with Louise, she invited me up there for a weekend. As class sponsor, she had to attend the senior prom and wanted an escort. She arranged a place for me to stay at the home of a very nice neighbor of hers. As I remember, the prom was a minor part of that evening for the students; the big event was the "after-party," which Nancy and other chaperones had to attend also. The students looked wonderful, and they loved having Nancy with them for such a long period of time that night.
Then it was years later again until I saw her the next time. Nancy called me from Tennessee, saying that she had gotten a job with the Health and Human Services Department of the federal government. She was driving up to Maryland fromTennessee with her mother to find an apartment and begin her job, and she asked me if I could help her in that process. I was living in my large house then, so I was able to offer them each a private bedroom for as long as they liked. It was during those days that we began to become good friends.
I suggested that they try for a unit at Congressional Towers, a development near Rockville Pike that I knew about because it was the home of several of my adult Japanese students whom I had been tutoring in English fluency. I knew it was a very nice place. I asked that we meet at a nearby restaurant in Congressional Plaza. When I arrived, I went into the front part of the seating area and saw a lovely, mature woman sitting alone. I said to her, "Mrs. Davis? I'm Bob Gallagher." She smiled and said, "So I finally get to meet Bob," and gave me a big hug. We hit it off immediately, and when Nancy joined us, she said Huretta and I looked like a couple of old Army buddies at a reunion, laughing and talking.
While they were living at my house, I remember preparing for them one of my favorite dishes, "Biftec Parisienne," which featured rare filet of beef with mushrooms, wine and cream, over noodles. I served it, and Nancy and I dived right in. But I noticed that Huretta was not eating. She asked me if I could cook her steak well-done. As I was doing so, Nancy and I teased her about not being French enough. Soon after, I led them over to the rental office at Congressional Towers, they found a nice unit, and began the process of moving in. Their favorite restaurant was right down the street from the apartments called the Mykonos Grill, and we went there many times for delicious Greek food. From that time on, I became a part of the Davis extended family and shared much of their history right up to the present.
Fondly,
Bob Gallagher
