By Rita Larom

Born in Chicago 81 years ago, Lopez Islander Nancy Craig Fay was eight years old when her father died of a heart attack. Her mother continued to run the family business in downtown Chicago while Nancy and her older brother cared for themselves. “We did okay. I would meet my mother at the streetcar but sometimes several would stop before my mother appeared. I was always relieved when she arrived because my father had gone away to the same place on one and didn’t return,” Fay said. “My mother never remarried. “I graduated from high school when I was 16 and from Northwestern with a degree in psychology when I was 20. Francis, my husband, and I met in Philadelphia when I went to visit my brother who was in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.” Both men lived in a cooperative house with mixed races, faiths, and genders. Fay remained there and worked at a psychological clinic at the University. The couple married in Philadelphia where they began attending Friends meetings. Raised a Methodist, Fay embraced Quakerism and its quest for simplicity, peace, and care of the environment. “Those are things I already believed in,” she said. “There is a joke about Quakerism–that they believe in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the neighborhood of Philadelphia since there are so many Quaker institutions in that area.” Fay now attends a Friends group on Lopez. Fay’s husband received his PhD in Education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where the couple lived for ten years and where two of their three children were born. The family lived in Dubuque, Iowa, briefly and then spent five years in Plainfield, Vermont, while her husband taught at Goddard College. That was the family’s first rural experience. “It was a very special place and time for us,” Fay said. “We were active in the community and helped start a school that our children attended.” Chapel Hill, North Carolina, became their home for the next 23 years. When her children were older, Fay obtained her Master of Social Work degree at the University of North Carolina while her husband taught and had administrative duties there. Fay worked as a psychotherapist–part of the time jointly with her spouse providing family therapy. “I loved my 30 years of doing psychotherapy and I really miss it,” she said. A physically active woman who still attends exercise and yoga classes, Fay happily recalls walking through the woods and swimming laps every morning before work while in Chapel Hill. In her Lopez home, she said the large beige and brown rug beneath her feet was obtained in Morocco in1968 on one of the couples many travels. “We weren’t aware that the carpet was made by a small child.” Fay explained. “I loved Ireland. We spent five weeks there, hitchhiked down the western side, and met many interesting people on that venture.” A regular blood donor, Fay has given an amazing 25 gallons over 40 years. A gradual loss of Fay’s eyesight motivated them to move to Lopez to be near their daughter, Elf, of Crowfoot Farm. Another daughter lives in Seattle while their son resides in New Zealand. Realtor Dianne Pressenda and Elf found a house within walking distance of the Village. Having seen only photos of their new home, the Fays moved to Lopez in 2001. Fay has early onset Macular Degeneration. “I was diagnosed at 40,” she said. She was told that first one eye would go and within six months she would lose the other. “It was devastating—and incorrect. It didn’t take my eyesight away until I was sixty. I’ve had a long time to adjust. I could be in a lot worse shape than I am. I feel blessed with good health, a loving family, and the lack of eyesight earned me a guide dog.” Enthusiastically, Fay talks about the dog she will acquire in May. The application to Guide Dogs for the Blind included a home visit. The organization breeds and trains Labradors and Golden Retrievers. The recipients are not charged. She will spend two weeks in Boring, Oregon, getting acquainted and working with her dog before bringing it home. Married 59 years, the Fays are regulars at the Senior lunches at Woodman Hall. Fay has great appreciation for friends and volunteers who have made life on Lopez more accessible. “It’s an amazing thing about time,” Fay said. “I feel the same, in a certain sense, as I did when I was 20. One doesn’t see themselves aging since the inner self remains the same. It’s kind of a shock. I don’t think of myself as old. The eyes are one thing and that’s a real loss, but aside from that I’m very fortunate. My mother lived to be 98. I’m looking forward to it.”