My friend died recently. It felt unexpected because she was engaged, connected and making her way in a world that had changed for her in recent years. She was a person who was alive, curious and had a lot of wonder and awe.
She was well known and loved in her field (early childhood education). I met her when she auditioned me as a teaching artist. But this isn’t about her work. This is about friendship. Nancy Stanton Multer – I called her friend.
Nancy was a connector of people and ideas. My life is enriched by the people I’ve met because of Nancy, and she had a lot of friends.
She was a lover of puns, an artist, and had traveled to Italy.
She loved movement, music and stories,
illustrations,
Erte fashion designs (art nouveau),
Georgia O’Keefe, and . . .
symmetry
dragons, swans, roosters, chickens, peacocks, goats,
and cats.
Valentine’s Day was her favorite holiday.
Some of the many things she loved included . . .
containers with lids,
particularly small containers and heart-shaped boxes.
but she also enjoyed medium size containers too.
She cared about aesthetics and loved purple.
Nancy once gave me a magnetic sign that read, “All I see is magic.”
She was generous, and human.
We didn’t always agree and/or maybe even understand one another at times
but that didn’t stop the friendship – it only made us more curious.
And curiosity is a prime ingredient for playfulness.
She loved books … and children’s books.
She married children’s books with various objects,
sprinkled in a bit of imagination and voila – children engaged!
Adults often were too!
Nancy liked Japanese art, rabbits and moons.
Her favorite flowers were
poppies,
bleeding hearts,
violets,
nasturtiums and zinnias
which grew in her grandmother’s gardens.
Nancy liked googly eyes, and
she saw creatures of all kinds in the food she ate.
She loved her friends.
Nancy liked to play and valued it. She was a play advocate.
I’m glad we had so many conversations. I’m glad she was my friend.
Enjoy the stories and have a playful day,
Mary
P.S. If a friend was:
- a tomato, then they would grow on vines.
- an apple, then they would hang around in trees.
- a pizza, then they might be delivered to your door.
- a door, then the door would be more open than it would be closed.
- a banana, they couldn’t be more appealing.
