Nancy the Person (from Nancy's Mother)

In our ongoing effort to introduce you to Nancy the person we are attaching these reflections from her mother.

There are probably only a handful of mothers who can say that one of their greatest joys in life was a shared passion for flying with their daughter, but that is certainly true for Nancy and me.  When she was about six years old and started going to school all day, I secretly began to pursue my lifelong passion of learning to fly.  Several months later when I told my family about my flying lessons, six year old Nancy piped up and said “Oh boy, that’s what I want to do too.”  The day she turned 16, she came back to us and said, “Okay, I’m ready!”

After taking flying lessons in Torrance and later in college at Davis, Nancy became a certified pilot.  Like me, she loved the sense of empowerment and independence that flying afforded.  We started a tradition of mother-daughter spring-break excursions that created some of my favorite memories.  Since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Nancy has been grounded, but the wonderful memories of those days are still with me.  I know that some of the innate skills she cultivated as a pilot will serve her well during this terrible time.  That belief, coupled with the incredible outpouring of community support that we have seen, is what is keeping us going until Nancy returns.

-  Joan Paulikas, Nancy’s Mother