Charles Jones (my husband) and I met Nancy Covert in 1995 through the Steilacoom Chamber of Commerce when we first joined after opening our flower shop Love Me Now Floral Design in the Historic District in the Town of Steilacoom.
Nancy was a regular customer. She also dropped by frequently just to share updates about goings on Around Town.
Nancy Covert’s strong personality – whether you loved her for her personal integrity or found her to be too blunt and brusque for your sensitivities – was and will be remembered by anyone who met her.
For those of us who counted Nancy among our closest friends, we cherish a plethora of memories from over the years.
Blunt and brusque are among the strong attributes that defined Nancy. She had a lively mind, passionate spirit, and investigative soul. She was never short of story ideas. She embedded and involved herself in local history in the Town of Steilacoom as well as in her more recent work regarding Lakewood, American Lake, Lake City, and Tillicum.
Nancy shied away from nothing. She had an opinion about everything. If she found that she was incorrect about any assumption she made, which was seldom, she was quick to admit she was wrong.
Nancy had clarity about herself and her world view(s). She was a dynamo. She continually worked to not only document history, but to prod others to record their own history. A hallmark of Nancy’s drive was to cajole or even coerce others into writing their stories.
My husband and I have chuckled over the years whenever sharing a story with Nancy, you could count on this to come from her lips at least once in every phone call or in-person visit, “You should…” I do not recall a time when we were with Nancy when she didn’t say (at least once), “You should…” And then she’d go on to tell me that “you should” write that story. Next she’d tell me where to submit it for publication. Nancy was relentless, resilient and ‘tough as nails.’
We spent many fun times together as judges of the Christmas lighting displays around Steilacoom in years gone by. Nancy, Charles, and I would ride around together in the evening judging the displays, making memories, and sharing laughs.
The last time we were in touch with Nancy was on Christmas Day. I had sent her some pictures I’d taken on Christmas Eve as Charles and I once again toured the exterior lighting displays in Steilacoom. Nancy wrote back and complimented me on the great pictures.
Nancy was such a strong character. Again, she knew exactly who she was. Modern technology especially information technology and the internet itself were not what she regarded as her Friend. Join Facebook? Heck no! She had a disdain for such things. She still preferred in-person, face-to-face contact with friends, not a larger and possibly unknown network of ‘friends.’ She relied on using the computer at the public library for internet access. She eschewed wasting her time watching television so she didn’t even own one.
For the most part, Nancy was a serious-minded person. As the calendar was about to roll forward into Y2K on New Year’s Eve, Nancy and my brother Dan Todorovich joined us for dinner at the Black Angus and then came back to our Lakewood apartment with us to ring in the New Year. My brother was a scholar and both an avid reader and writer. He passed away the day after Christmas in 2007. To my surprise on that New Year’s Eve, Nancy had brought fireworks with her! Sparklers!!! At midnight the four of us went outside at our apartment complex. Nancy and my brother lit the sparklers for all of us and we cheered to ring in the New Year. It was a rare and astonishing moment of levity with Nancy; clearly, a moment I will never forget.
Thankfully, the world did not end with the advent of Y2K or the hilarity of celebrating the New Year with fireworks sparklers in our parking lot.
