Nancy Nelson attended the Central Coast Monthly Meeting for the past ten years. She also attended Pacific Yearly Meeting and Quarterly Meeting. Nancy was a lover of art and music, which she incorporated into her teaching whenever she was in charge of First Day School. She loved to read theatrically to the children, using props like stuffed animals and hand- and finger- puppets, and speaking in their character’s voices.
Nancy particularly enjoyed connections with places and people. Traveling the world in her 20s as a United Airlines employee and in later years locally on the Central Coast of California, she found joy in impressions made, collecting meaningful items - international coins, seashells, children's books - and telling her own life stories. She was also known as a prolific letter-writer. As part of her involvement with Quaker Meeting, she often wrote cards of appreciation for kindnesses received, for birthday greetings, and other notes.
Nancy was born in Chicago in 1945 and grew up near Interlochen, MI. She attended a one- room school before graduating from Schurz High School in Chicago. She joyfully shared her love of music and arts: playing cello at National Music Camp, drawing pastels at the Art Institute of Chicago, growing a personal music collection, and more. Nancy was the proud mother of six daughters: Janessa, Alyssa, Ilsa, Carolyn, Erika, and Laurel, three of whom she birthed at home. She was also the grandmother of 17.
Nancy faced her progressive physical disabilities with persistence and resilience, participating in yoga, equestrian therapy, adaptive sea kayaking, and various support groups. At death she became a donor to the UCLA Gift of Hope Program.
Nancy died Jan 13, 2019, leaving her family and Meeting with an example of resiliency, courage, and determination that remains in our hearts and memories.