Nazy, I’ll Miss You

Nazy was a member of our family.  Not by blood, but it didn’t matter…she was part of us.  She posed in family portraits, she was there on every occasion that mattered.  When people learned that she was sick, they’re response was always shock.  “But she’s so young…she looks so healthy.”  And honestly, that was a choice on her part.  I’ve never seen someone fight so hard against a disease.  Nazy never gave up.  She was funny, sweet, cheerful, loving until the very end.  This is her final Facebook post, less than a week before she passed:

Nazy Baskin what can I say, life is always a challenge!

Right before she died, my brother asked Thomas to draw her a picture.  My brother builds motorcycles, and Nazy loved them too…she also loved elephants.  Greg wanted a picture to put on his motorcycle…something cool and funny that would make her laugh.  “A memorial,” he told me.   “I want to show it to her.  It will make her happy.”

I was shocked.  “A memorial?  But she’s not dead!” I said.

“She will be soon.  You have to face that.  I have.  So has she.  She’s happy now.  She’s happy the struggle will finally be over.”

It was just hard to imagine Nazy actually dying…until the end, she chose to go through life seeing the goodness around her.  Even when she was dying, she chose to be alive.

When I think of Nazy, I will always come back to this word:  grace.  She was one of those rare women who were born with it.  Grace, beauty, style, eloquence in everything she did – in the way she smiled at you, in her laugh, in her approach to the world. I’ve been told, even in the end, despite the pain, she was still the Nazy we all loved – warm, hopeful, kind.  She went out this world like she lived in it.

I will really, really miss her.