Dear Mr. & Mrs. Morgenstern,

I recently spent a Saturday night with Nancy. Since Nancy usually goes to sleep early before races, it was a treat to go out with her. She could not stop talking about how excited she was about buying an apartment and could not wait for her dad to come into the city and look at the place she found. As always, Nancy was upbeat and fun to be around and that’s why people always wanted to be around her.

Since my parents live in Manhattan, I always stay in the city for all the holidays. While many people go home for the first days of Pesach, many people stay for the second days. While I might receive many invitations for meals for the second days, I have to admit Nancy was the only person in whose home I would eat during Pesach. She was not only strict but also knowledgeable about all of the halachos for Pesach. I was always moved by her dedication to halacha.

The first time I met Nancy was when she moved into the James Tower with my close friend Beth Haimm. Beth was the first of a myriad of roommates who moved in without a boyfriend and within a year was engaged. While the room was the best in the apartment and most expensive because it had its own bathroom, Nancy decided she needed to move into it because it was a s’gulah [good luck] room.

Meryl Degen