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In Memoriam: Nancy King
A wake for Nancy will be held on Friday, December 21, at the Bryant Funeral Home in Wayland (4 to 8 p.m.). A funeral mass will be held on Saturday, Dec 22 at 10 a.m. at St. Julia's in Weston. See below to read Bob Sable's tribute to Nancy. Bob Sable's tribute: Nancy was my colleague and partner for more than fifteen years. I am Executive Director of Greater Boston Legal Services and Nancy was my counterpart at the Framingham legal services program, South Middlesex Legal Services. You could not have a better partner or colleague. Nancy was deeply committed to equal justice for poor people. Whatever the task to work toward that goal, Nancy would take it on. No task was beneath her – assuring the donuts were at the meeting, straightening out the grammar of a draft memo. No task was too daunting – doing a complex financial analysis, mediating a conflict, drafting a critical position paper. To every job she brought intellectual prowess, immense energy, attention to detail and above all, unending good humor. She led her program for many years. Under her leadership South Middlesex is a center of excellence helping thousands to achieve justice and obtain basic human needs. Under her leadership South Middlesex is a happy place to work There was no one like Nancy for dealing with people. She connected with everyone, legal service clients, judges, colleagues and politicians. In two minutes, you thought you knew her forever. She had you talking about your family and you were ready to do whatever she wanted. Nancy and I headed up a committee to lobby for more state funding for legal services. Nancy was the master lobbyist. Every state representative and senator in her district was a strong supporter. It is no coincidence that the legislator who was the champion for funding legal services was from Nancy’s area. Surely Nancy persuaded them all of the importance of legal aid, but surely also none of them would turn down Nancy about anything. She always made a human connection – a cousin who knew a cousin, a parish they shared growing up, a constituent they both knew. Nancy was the ultimate people person but she was no goody goody. She loved to regale you with tales of human folly about friends, family and colleagues. And she loved nothing better than a story where she was the one who ended up looking foolish. Nancy loved her work and Nancy loved her family. You couldn’t know Nancy without feeling that you knew all her family even if you had never met any of them. Siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews – triathlons, adoptions, illnesses, silliness and triumphs, you learned about them all because she cherished them all. Nancy was astonishingly open about her struggle with cancer. But she never complained. There was no self-pity. I asked her about it once not long ago and she said: "You give yourself ten minutes a day to feel sorry for yourself and then you get on with it." |
