This is hard to write.
The tears have stopped and now the memories begin to flood my mind.
Nancy Marker Steinert was my friend. I didn't know her like most of you. Our relationship didn't begin in elementary school it began later in high school. But it flourished many years later, long after I had moved away from Dayton.
For years she had encouraged me to come to our class reunions. It seemed like I always had a schedule conflict, or had just recently made my 3 or 4 year pilgrimage to Dayton to visit family...or maybe I was unsure about seeing old friends.
I finally made it to the first of my reunions.... our 35th Reunion. I can remember going to the Holiday Inn in Englewood. Nancy met me at the door and immediately made me feel comfortable as I stumbled while trying to remember past classmates names.
She could remember every person, every event, every detail of my life at Fairview. Much better than I could. She was a who's who and where's where and what's what of everyone that I asked about. She had pictures and poetry and news clippings and was an encyclopedia of Fairview High School. It was her passion.
I can remember going over to her house while I was there for the reunion. I had never known George but in the few minutes we were there she told me about him and her love for him and her aching heart. I felt like he would have been my friend as well.
After the 35th, we continued to write back and forth always filling me in with details about my close friends. Always asking about my family....sending a note when my Mom had passed away...always keeping me close to Fairview.
When the 40th reunion was nearing she was adamant about me being there. With Nancy...no was not an option. She lovingly pestered me for my updated bio....making sure my flights were scheduled.....making sure my reservations were made. I remember the look on her face when I got to Dayton told her P.J. and I would be rooming together as if......."here we go again".
This past summer, my wife and I journeyed to Dayton for my brother Rick's wedding. I told Nancy of our planned visit and she arranged a luncheon with old friends, Bruce Trowman, Guy Kennedy, Susan Ritter, Dwight Woessner....that was Nancy. She was a friend's friend.
I know there is much more to Nancy than my small snapshot of her life but it is what I want to remember. It is my part of her.
I don't know what the next reunion will be like without Nancy...I think all of us are a little scared of the tears that will flow, it will be hard. There is no one who can replace her and I am fearful that without her we might drift away.
Selfishly, I wonder who will be my connection to my home.
I miss her. I'll always remember her. And when I think of Dayton and particularly Fairview High School I will always think of Nancy first.
