Joy Lewis
I discovered this site yesterday and am in a state of shock along with the other friends who have left tributes. Words describing Nancy as artistic, talented, lovely, kind, generous and bright, tell me that each of them had known and loved Nancy well. It comforts me to know she had their friendship.
I met Nancy in 1964, in Boston. She was on her first job out of Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Graphic Design and I was working as a Copywriter, at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.
We had planned to meet for lunch one day and she whisked into the Advertising Dept.
saying, "Quick! Grab your coat. A friend is joining us." I just assumed it would be another femme, but it was Robert Lewis. Bob was already a year out of RISD with a degree in Interior Architectural Design, and had recently moved to Boston from New Haven where he was leaving his first job for greener pastures.
I liked Bob at once but assuming that he was a boyfriend of Nancy's, did not give him a a single flirtatious flick of the eyelash. After a quick lunch (we were young, and we only got 45 minutes) we started back to our offices and Bob made a pit stop to buy each of us a nosegay of violets from a sidewalk vendor. Nancy swooped hers high into the air, saying "I'm going to go right up to my boss and say, "I quit!"
We had reached the corner where Bob was going to go one way and we were going to go the other and Bob said, to me, "May I call you?" Right in front of Nancy! I nearly fell off the curb with surprise and embarrassment. We quickly planned to meet the following morning, the three of us, and go to the annual Boston Flower Show.
As Nancy and I traced the last few steps back to Liberty Mutual, she gamely stepped aside saying that she had other plans for Saturday morning. She was amused by my confusion and said "Bob isn't my boyfriend, Joy. We were in the same rat pack. He was saying "Boo-hoo-hoo, I am so lonely" in one ear and you were saying it in the other, so I just thought I would get you together."
Advertising was on the first floor and Graphics was on the seventh. As the elevator door was closing I said, "Oh thank you, Nancy! Thank you." Nancy was wearing the biggest smile and later, about once a year, she would say, "I will never forget the look on your face when we were standing at the elevator door and you said . . ."
On a misty February day in 1967, I was holding a bridal bouquet of the biggest nosegay of violets ever to be seen and Nancy and our friend, Tim were standing beside us as a small chamber choir sang a canon to the text, "Many waters can not quench love" and vows were exchanged.
Nancy continued to be our nearest and dearest friend until Bob died in 1999 and after that, Nancy and I remained the tightest of friends. The last time we spoke, she said she wanted to come up to visit me on Long Island as soon as the pandemic eased. We always thought we would see each other again.
Sincere sympathy to Marty and her sons, to all the friends Nancy loved, and who loved her.
Joy Lewis
January 24, 2022
