I guess it really is over. You really are gone........
P.S. I think I got the stone right. It's just like your parents' stones - raised letters, years only, font identical. It's in the right spot, and now you are too. The burial wis a funny, non-traditional event that I'm sure you would have laughed over. It involved a shovel and a convertible. I found it hard to leave. Miss you still.
I love this picture of us as we were when I was a child. Here we all are as I like to remember us from sometime in the late 1960's. This was taken in upstate New York where we lived for a few years while Nancy remained in Connecticut in her yellow house. Nancy is wearing cordoroy pants that I know she loved. Mom (Jean) is wearing a plaid wind breaker that I also remember; and Dad (Clay) looks young and fit. We kids were just beginning to understand life. Gotta love those overalls Paul.
Nancy displayed this picture in her home and kept it with her all her days. She cherished the picture of her father (in the lower right hand corner) as it was one of the few she had. Also pictured are her mother, Ruth (next to her father), and her Aunt Adah (next to Ruth).
This picture was taken before Ruth and Earl were married.
Nancy's happy expression and joyful aura permeated her personality. She loved to have a good time and wanted to enable others to have a good time too. She did so many things for so many others that her generosity was quite remarkable.
This picture somehow captures her eager anticipation, her pleasure, and her love of family and life.
Nancy's favorite fabric was cordoroy. You could be sure she would like anything made of cordoroy; be it pants, a jacket, or a shirt. Her favorite color was purple. I have given her many purple cordoroy pants and jackets over the years and each one was always a keeper.
Nancy was a life-long supporter of Middlebury College from which she graduated with a degree in biology. She never faltered in her admiration of Middlebury nor missed an opportunity to encourage it be considered in a college search. She loved Middlebury and enjoyed being a Kappa Kappa Gamma.
Nancy is pictured in this reunion photo - standing at the very center, of course.
Nancy Read the only child of Ruth and Earl Read. The "perfect" child.
Nancy started skiing early in life. It soon became an annual affair with trips to Vermont and other places in New England, always with Jean and Clay Wetmore and the children. She was good at most sports and skiing was no exception. She particularly enjoyed the long, easy, runs. She continued to ski well into her 70's, only slowing down when she reached 80.
Nancy met Jean at Standard Oil. It was both of their first jobs. They discovered they had shared interests, compatible personalities, and were within six months in age. They quickly became fast friends, sailboat co-owners, and apartment-mates. It was a friendship that never faltered; through vacations, through the addition of Jean's husband, through the addition of Jean and Clay's children, through separation by moves from Connecticut to New York and New Jersey and back, through life, and perhaps, beyond.
The connection which started through friendship truly became one of family. Nancy was, and always will be, family.
Nancy never bought a new car (to the best of my knowledge). Instead she preferred used cars, but always something fun and sporty. She especially enjoyed convertibles and was a carefree driver.
Her yellow house sat high on a hill and had a treacherously steep driveway with a wicked curve. She enjoyed seeing how fast she could reverse down it, spinning the wheel at just the right moment to make the curve. It was a fun ride and she somehow never missed the curve. Some of her friends, with good reason, refused to drive up the driveway as they did not feel comfortable descending. In truth, more than one visitor did not succesfully negotiate the curve and wound up over the hill in the woods.
Nancy's first job was in the laboratory at Standard Oil. She was a biology major in college and with many men away fighting WWII, companies looked to fill openings with women with science degrees. She appeared in this newspaper article (she's the one in the upper left). It was a job she loved and through which she made many life-long friends; including Jean Hund and Clay Wetmore. When the war ended, the men returned and reclaimed their jobs and the women went on to other endeavors.
Nancy made her living in the field of science, but her true passion was politics.
Nancy always decorated for Christmas and enjoyed entertaining family and friends for the holidays. She had an artifical Christmas tree which looked exactly the same every year. I discovered that she thought it enormously practical to leave it completely decorated and simply store it in the attic.
When Jean and Clay Wetmore had a baby girl they named her Nancy in honor of Nancy Read. Jean and Clay always claimed that Nancy Read had said, "If you name her Nancy, I will pay for her college." Over 18 years the story changed and all parties remembered it differently - perhaps it was "If you name her Nancy and she goes to Middlebury, I will pay for her college." - perhaps it was Clay who said, "Now that we've named her Nancy, you can pay for her college." - perhaps it was wishful thinking. Who knows? Nancy Wetmore did go to college and it did get paid for - how? - no one ever said.
Nancy had a very special relationship with Kevin. It defies words.
Nancy never missed a family event, everything from graduations to birthdays to holidays. In June 2009 she attended Samantha's high school graduation. Even though it was difficult for her she wouldn't consider missing it. She was never one to complain especially when it came to doing for others.
This picture is from May 1950 and includes Nancy Read (third from the bottom), Jane "Landy" Landis (above Nancy) and Jean Wetmore (above Landy). They drove around the US and into Mexico on an extended vacation in the spring and summer of 1950, stopping to visit friends and see America's landmarks. This mule ride down the Grand Canyon was one of their adventures. A bull fight in Mexico, where Jean was robbed, was another. They often reminisced about the fun they had on their travels, but agreed that Connecticut was the ideal place to call home.
Sailing was Nancy’s favorite pastime. She learned to sail as a young adult through friends. She and her best friend, Jean Wetmore, bought a boat together and spent their energies learning to sail. They vacationed by sailing to nearby ports and progressed to longer trips spending nights onboard. When Jean married Clay they incorporated him into their sailing holidays and eventually their children as well.
I spent every summer of my childhood living on the boat from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Nancy lived on the boat as well. It didn’t seem small to me at the time, but looking back at the situation I’m not sure how we all managed to be as happy as we were. Nancy had her job to get to and so we kids would take turns rowing her into shore in the morning as it was too early for the launch. Most mornings were uneventful; however, I do recall one morning she misjudged the dock and ended up in the water. As she was so good-natured we all enjoyed a good laugh before returning to the boat for a change of clothes.
Nancy Read and Jean Wetmore's first sailboat was named the "Boojum". We never quite understood why they chose this name, but it was to be repeated on all boats they were to own; ending with the last in the line: "Boojum VI". Jean enjoyed poetry and I suppose chose the name from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark which depicts the Boojum as a ghostlike fictional thing that disappears (best as I understand Carroll). The trouble with naming your boat Boojum, was it was often mistakenly thought that you said, "bosum"; leading to some hilarlity when identifying yourself on the ship radio.
Every day Nancy picked me up from nursery school and drove past the most beautiful yellow house. Every day I asked her to drive by the house and every day I told her what a beautiful yellow color it was. That spring she painted her house - yellow, of course.
