NANCY JUDITH HESS

Nancy and I met at the University of Hartford in 1975 in a Comparative History course during our senior year. I was smitten the first time I laid eyes on her, and finally had the courage asked her out that June. Our first date was June 21, 1975, and we fell so hard in love that we moved into an apartment in West Hartford with my dogs Nicky and Wendy and my cat Percy. We moved up to Melrose, Massachusetts in 1977 and were married on June 23, 1979 in Ralph Waldo Emerson's church in Concord, Mass. Nancy went to work for Delta and I was attending graduate school at Harvard, getting my Ph.D. After our dogs passed away in spring 1984, our marriage began to crumble as we drifted apart. We bought a house in Wakefield that summer, but in the fall we separated. It was a painful time for both of us, as we still loved each other very much but just couldn't live together. I left Massachusetts in 1991 to become a professor of English at Purdue, and we didn't stay in touch, but I've never stopped loving her. We were very young when we moved in together and married, and in your early twenties you can grow in different directions and find yourself, a decade later, no longer really together. But she was the only woman I ever truly loved, and she has been in my thoughts and heart since that day when I first saw her. Nancy was incredibly kind and decent. She cared about people and always did whatever she could to help others. Everything about her was beautiful, inside and out. I pray we'll meet again on the other side. Rest in Peace, my beautiful, sweet angel.

Sorry for your loss may you draw comfort from Hosea 13:14. L Ohio