Petronella Taylor

Petronella Taylor, Nel to her husband and Nellie to her friends, died peacefully at home on June 22, 2008.

Born Petronella Snel on Feb. 10, 1944, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, she immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 10 years old. Less than a week after arriving in this country, she started school when the only English she knew was the phrase "I have no money in my pocket."

Nellie was always highly adaptable and quickly adjusted to her new life. Following her 1962 graduation from Muskegon Heights High School in Muskegon, Mich., she immediately began her training as a registered nurse. Much to the chagrin of her Old World family who believed that a single woman should remain at home, within a year of obtaining her registered nurse license Nellie not only bought a convertible but also joined the Army Nurse Corps. This adventuresome spirit served her well throughout the remainder of her life.

After completing her basic introduction into military life, the newly commissioned second lieutenant was assigned to an orthopedic ward at Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver, caring for soldiers wounded in Vietnam. In January 1967, one of those soldiers was brought in just at the end of her shift causing her to work overtime. During the next several months what began as pass-the-time conversation over coffee in the nurses' break room grew into friendship and then blossomed into love. Nellie was an officer, but he was enlisted so Army culture made traditional dating awkward, and they contented themselves with long conversations that would begin in the early evening and last through late night eggs on toast. For the next 40 years it was a rare day when these best friends did not find the time for a quiet conversation.

In July 1967, Nellie was transferred to Pusan, South Korea, while her husband-to-be, Paul, was still a patient at Fitzsimmons. Over the Christmas holidays Paul hitchhiked from Kansas to Korea on military planes, and they were married in Seoul on Dec. 26, 1967. A few days after that, Paul returned to Kansas while Nellie remained in Korea, making them one of the few couples who can honestly say that they never had even a slight disagreement during the first months of their marriage.

Upon completion of her active duty in August 1968, Nellie joined her husband at the University of Kansas. In order to support Paul through both undergraduate and graduate degrees, Nellie spent the next several years working in a Veterans Administration hospital that was not air-conditioned in the summer and barely heated in the winter. Always tireless, Nellie only took two short breaks to have their children, Brian and Laura.

The VA hospital where she worked had many long-term World War I and World War II patients who were avid baseball fans, and to help make their days a little more pleasant she began to follow sports closely. So closely that knowing she was overdue with her first baby she still insisted on going to a KU basketball game even though she had been experiencing labor pains all afternoon. She refused to leave the game until half-time and then yelled at her by-then frantic husband to drive faster to get to the hospital on time. Nellie remained a fan of any and all sports and watched more sports programs than the most stereotypical male.

Once Paul completed his education, they moved to North Dakota where Nellie earned a bachelor's degree in nursing at Jamestown College. In 1980, they moved to Fairbanks, which they hated at first, but ultimately settled in. They made friends and it became their home. Small in stature but big in heart, Nellie was an invaluable helpmate in the Alaska lifestyle who could haul and stack firewood with the best and was an enthusiastic partner on raft and camping trips. A little less enthusiastically she also was Paul's supporter and handler for the Yukon Quest.

Nellie continued her nursing career in Fairbanks but that was secondary to raising her children. By 1995, she and Paul decided that she had worked long enough and hard enough raising and educating their children and her time should be devoted to her needlework and knitting, her flowers, her golf game and the travel which she dearly loved. As the disease took its toll, her most fervent desire at the end was to live long enough to attend her daughter's wedding in Mexico. She made it with just a few days to spare.

Nellie is survived by her husband, Paul, and two well-raised and successful children; son Brian and daughter Laura as well as new son-in-law Eric and many friends from all stages of her life. She was loved and she will be missed.