End of day summaries

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

LA Found Making a Profound Difference

Mr. Silman Sao wrote me a heartfelt letter:


Silman Sao
January 3, 2019

Dear Mr. Moody,
My name is Silman Sao. I have the honor to write to you to express our gratitude, my wife and I, for the organization you helped create, LA FOUND.
On December 20th, at 2:00 pm, my wife disappeared from the comer of Wilshire and Norton in LA. She was diagnosed in March of an early stage of Alzheimer's. On November 27, she was offered the LA Found tracking bracelet.  I left her in our car parked under a very shaded tree. I was only going to be away less than 15 mins to pick up a few items inside the building and be back. She explicitly refused to follow me in the building, preferring wait for me in the car, because she was a little dizzy.  I kissed her goodbye and left. I came back 10 mins later the passenger seat was empty.
I first thought she was just walking around the block and be back. After 2 hours, I decided to call 911 to file a missing person claim.  A few minutes later, the LAPD team was there followed by the Sheriff Department one. They mobilized all their logistics. A first team was supposed to track the device my wife was wearing, driving through the streets on which we thought she could be walking. A moment later a helicopter came to support the teams on the ground. After hours of unsuccessful search, they finally brought a canine unit with dogs sniffing around along the path my wife took. That did not lead to anything, since the dogs lost her track about a mile away from the point of disappearance.
All those attempts took us up to 4:00 am, Friday early morning.  I was dead with worries, not having eaten nor drunk anything for the whole time, without noticing it.
The following day, in the evening, I received a phone call from a guy saying he surprisingly found my wife's purse in his car.  He honestly couldn't understand how that purse got in it.
He gave me his address in Highland Park. I notified immediately the Lieutenant John Gannon from Sheriff s Department. He put right away the necessary logistics together, one hour later he located the tracking device my wife was wearing.
I went through these details to tell how much I can understand the pain you have been through since the disappearance of your own wife. For a lot shorter time I have been through the same worries, anxiety, sleepless nights, but it all ended happily when I found my wife
This success story would not had been possible didn't you have the inspiration to help create La Found organization, with new tools to find missing persons.  During the deepest period of your life, your other half disappearance due to her medical condition, you have had the inspiration and the strength to follow it to put together this such great organization as LA Found, to help all other families going through those horrible pains, find a fast relief.
Having experienced firsthand how that feels to recover missing loved one, I could not stay silent after the rescue I have had because of the tracking bracelet we have graciously received from your organization.
Your wife has finally released her physical body, may her rest in peace.
However, even though she is not present physically anymore around, she will always be present not only throughout the everlasting love binding her to you, but also, she will keep shining throughout every single person, your program has helped find.
She is our Guardian Angel. May her light keep shining over all of us.
I will always, always pray for her.

Sincerely and with my eternal gratitude,


Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Celebration of Life Event Planned

We are going to hold a Celebration of Nancy's Life:
  • March 16, 1:00 PM
  • Polliwog Park, Manhattan Beach (Amphitheater - parking is a bit limited, but there are a few parking lots and street parking surrounding the park)
  • Light refreshments will be provided.
     
    This event is a private reservation and is not endorsed or sponsored by the City of Manhattan Beach.


Wednesday, January 2, 2019

In memory

We are working to hold a memorial service for Nancy and are currently aiming for March.

In the meantime, we are donating the reward money to three causes in memory of Nancy.  We have tributes set up for anyone that would like to join us.

Alzheimer's Los Angeles: (Note the "I would like to dedicate this donation" box)
https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E331195&id=6
4221 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 400, Los Angeles CA 90010

Alzheimer's Association:
http://act.alz.org/site/TR/Events/Tributes-AlzheimersChampions?pxfid=527074&fr_id=1060&pg=fund
225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601

Best Friends (Animal Society)
https://bestfriends.org/donate/make-gift-memory/make-gift-memory-donate 
(here's a tribute page I made, for some reason it is not set up to take additional donations: https://bestfriends.org/sanctuary/explore-sanctuary/angels-rest/memorials/nancy-paulikas )
5001 Angel Canyon Road
Kanab, Utah 84741-5000

 

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Great Ourpouring of Support, Thank You

Thanks to all of you who have been so kind as to relate your thoughts and wishes our way.

We are planning a memorial service but do not have any details yet.  We'll post specifics as they form.  Thank you all again.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Nancy's Remains Found

I heard from the police today that they have identified a skull and some ribs as positively matching Nancy's DNA.  Her remains were found in a remote area around Los Angeles.

Thank you all for you continued interest.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Christmas Memories

Amber on the right in the hat

Reindeer Antlers


Memories of Christmas from Nancy’s husband, Kirk
Nancy is an only child, and Christmas was typically celebrated, naturally, with her and her parents. When we started dating, as many couples do, we split our Christmas celebrations – every other year with each other’s’ families. My family is larger, and our tradition was to have lots of people together – mayhem often ensued (in a good way) – which may have come as a shock to Nancy’s system, but she adapted quickly. One year stands out in my memory. Nancy and I were flying into Denver on Christmas day. We got the earliest flight so that we could maintain the traditional Moody family schedule: Stockings, breakfast, then presents. It was also traditional to celebrate the stockings in one’s pajamas. My niece, Amber, who was about 13 at the time, went with her parents to meet us at the airport. She had a surprise for us! She was wearing a silly-looking Christmas Tree stocking cap. According to her mom Karen, just when people started coming off the plane, Amber started to get cold feet and asked her mom if maybe the hat would embarrass Uncle Kirk and (especially) Aunt Nancy. Karen assured her that we would take it all in good fun. Lo and behold, we exited the plane wearing pajamas and deer antlers. Nancy hopes we didn’t embarrass Amber too much!

Editors Note: During this holiday season, if you visit a skilled-nursing facility, please keep your eyes open for Nancy. Look at everyone there for a Caucasian female, late 50’s, ice-blue eyes, who cannot communicate. Please send all leads to Kirk at NancyIsMissing@gmail.com. You don’t have to be positive it is Nancy, she just needs to completely fit the profile. Including a photo is ideal if possible. Thanks. Let’s bring Nancy home.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Cats and Coffee Maker By Diane Bassett, Nancy’s childhood friend



I've been friends with Nancy since we were both in 4th grade, as we were next door neighbors. We went through school together and like many friends went on different paths as we went off to different colleges (remember this was back in the day before email, cellphones and the internet!). She went to UC Davis, but our families stayed closely connected since my sister also went there. They would occasionally carpool back and forth from school and I remember one time our family still laughs about when it was a challenge to fit everything into the jam-packed small car they were sharing-- including a cat and a litterbox that was balanced precariously in the back!

After Nancy graduated she moved to the Bay Area where we connected again. She was getting her Masters in Computer Science from Stanford and living with other grad students in a shared house in Palo Alto. One of their most prized possessions (which was very high-tech for the time) was a coffee maker with a timer that ensured the java was ready for everyone upon waking! I remember a fun outing we had with her and her then-boyfriend, wine tasting in the Santa Cruz mountains. Nancy was always a wine aficionado. 

Nancy was always the smartest person in the room, and also one of the most humble, polite and considerate. She was tremendously gifted and never let it swell her ego. I hold great hope that she will be found and I ask us all to talk about her with any people who might have contact in any way with board-and-care facilities where she might now be a patient. Hair dressers, caregivers, janitorial staff -- any one of these people might be the one to recognize a patient who just might be Nancy. She is counting on us to keep her front-of-mind with people who might be key to finding her.

Editors Note: During this holiday season, if you visit a skilled-nursing facility, please keep your eyes open for Nancy. Look at everyone there for a Caucasian female, late 50’s, ice-blue eyes, who cannot communicate. Please send all leads to Kirk at NancyIsMissing@gmail.com. You don’t have to be positive it is Nancy, she just needs to completely fit the profile. Including a photo is ideal if possible. Thanks. Let’s bring Nancy home.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

A Thanksgiving Story

Thanksgiving Memories with Nancy
from Allison Moody, Nancy’s Sister-in-Law
Kirk's family got a wild hair in 1994, and decided to surprise Kirk and Nancy by crashing their Thanksgiving dinner. They had invited Kirk's mom Kati, so we thought we were entitled to eat there as well. Kirk's siblings Karen, Allison, and Rex, niece Amber, nephew Ryan and sister in-law Susan, all flew to LAX with Kati. Kirk picked Kati up at the airport gate (remember when we could do that!?) while the rest of us "hid" on the airplane, and then shared two hotel rooms – boys and girls.
Wednesday, we went to Disneyland and got Mickey Mouse ears hats with our names stitched on the front. (Rex had "Grumpy") And on Thanksgiving, we arrived at their doorstep in our hats and good clothes. Nancy answered the door. She opened it, closed it, and from inside the house we could hear “Kirrrrrk! You'd better come here!” We thought that was priceless...the closed door especially! Of course, they had a full house already, including Nancy's parents George and Joan, Kirk's cousin Melissa Walsh and her family and a bunch of friends who played a lot of basketball in the driveway. Nancy made the mashed potatoes, yams and helped Kirk with all manner of other dishes.
On Friday, two more Colorado friends, Stru and Peg (THE Peg who is now the Care Facility Phone Call Manager in our efforts to find Nancy) joined us and we went to Universal Studios (we were all checking out our friend Stru's new honey). What a great time we all had on that trip!
Happy Thanksgiving. Let’s Bring Nancy Home!


 Kirk and Nancy preparing MORE food!

Newly minted Mousketeers Amber and Allison

Friday, November 16, 2018

A Few Memories ...



Memories from her father for Nancy’s birthday weekend.

Nancy learned to ski at around age four or five. Early in her skiing “career” one morning at Mammoth Mountain, she was skiing with Mom and Dad on Chair 1. Mom fell, Dad stayed to help Mom up. Meantime Nancy kept skiing and took a turn at a fork in the trail toward Chair 2 which had not yet been opened for the day . Mom and dad skied down to the base of Chair 1 at the Mammoth Lodge. “NO NANCY!!” It was about 9AM the temperature was 8F. The ski patrol refused to go looking for Nancy with the comment that they swept trails at the end of the day. PANIC! But looking up, a few minutes later, here comes Nancy, with a wide smile on her face, being guided down the trail by an adult skier. Nancy had indeed made it to the bottom of Chair 2 on her own which had just started running, whereupon a friendly adult and Nancy rode the chair up together and skied down together. Nancy thought this was a great adventure!

This kind of adventuresome spirit, manifested at an early age, was so typical of Nancy.






Our tradition is to walk from one South Bay pier to two others on milestone birthdays. We usually stopped at each one for a bite or a drink or both. When Nancy turned 50, we got a bonus with a Broncos game, which we watched at our traditional hangout Grunions. Good times!
 




Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Increasing Awareness - Local Task Force, Flyers in other languages, and more coverage of LA Found

Alzheimer's Los Angeles participates in the San Gabriel Valley Alzheimer's Task Force, which consists of professionals who deal with dementia patients such as employees of care facilities and social workers.  Kelly Honda of AlzLA set up an opportunity for me to share Nancy's story with this group last week, and that helps them understand real world issues in dealing with Alzheimer's sufferers, but also helps us spread Nancy's information to a larger network of key people.

It is also fortuitous because along with Kelly, Angie Yeh, Juyoung Park, and Yuan Yao were there.  Juyoung updated our Korean version of the flyer, and Yuan provided two Chinese versions.  Thanks so much to AlzLA for doing this!   I put these in a shareable folder that you can find on the right hand side of the blog.  And it is also right here:

Flyers in other languages

Also, other newspapers are picking up parts of the Rob Kuznia article and increasing the awareness of LA Found and Project Lifesaver.

I couldn't find an on-line version of this, but my sister sent me an image from today's Denver Post: