She had three open heart surgeries.  Each of these was very painful and required a long period of recovery time.  She faced each one with courage.  She didn't complain and never gave up trying to live a normal life.  She paced herself and new what she could do.  I was always impressed with her control over her life.  For example: when she was tired she went to bed.  It didn't matter what else or who else was there...she just went to bed.  She never over-ate or over-indulged in foods or drink that were not good for her.  She ate very slowly, chewing each bite a long time and consequently ate much less than other people by the time a meal was over.  She was always clean and neatly dressed and here hair always looked good.  She usually wore it short...easier that way.  She dressed in jeans and casual clothes most of the time.

Nancy and her nephew Mike Purcell

    When nancy was in highschool, she was very popular.  She was worthy advisor of Rainbow and had to wear formals quite a bit.  She also was part of a group of kids who had parties and dances a lot, so she dressed up then.  She had a boyfriend all during highschool named George Hendry.  Everyone thought they would get married for sure, but they didn't.  She had been working for several years before she married Paul.  She was probably about 30.

Pam and Paul and Nancy at Nancy and Paul's wedding.

    As a young girl, Nancy was considered "pretty" and she had a nice singing voice.  As kids we would often dress up in costumes and put on plays.  These were also of the variety hour sort, where there was singing and dancing as well as skits.  Although it seemed like Nancy was  sick quite a bit and at one point wasn't allowed to go up and down stairs, this didn't seem to stop her from doing everything.  We swam in the sound, went boating, and went camping and skiing.  We always had dogs (irish setters) and cats and Nancy loved them.  She loved the San Juan Islands where we would go camping with the family.

Nancy Lee Haugen  at 5 years of age