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Nancy Zieman: The Rest of the Story


After learning of the passing of my friend and mentor, Nancy Zieman, I wrote about how she had touched my life and the various opportunities I had to work with her. You can read that blog post, “The Loss of a Mentor” to learn how very much she meant to me.

I’m so glad that her beloved husband, Rich, spent some time writing his side of the story. I hope that the process of putting it all down helped him heal. In reflecting on her death, I often wondered about her family – how are they? How are they coping? What did her lovely little grand daughters experience? In this new book, we get an intimate view into Nancy’s personal and family life. What a blessing to have that perspective.

Someone recently said to me of Nancy, “She endured so much pain for the sewing industry.” Reading her book and Richard’s, I’m struck by something else. Her faith. Her passion. Her Grace. While she did do so much for our industry, I feel that first and foremost she lived and served in dedication to her savior, Jesus Christ. She lead a truly wholesome and faithful life and emulated God’s love in all she did. She was the walking example, the shining light of God’s love that he wants all of us to be.

Like Nancy, I have two children and my deepest hope is that as my career in this industry grows, that I am able to juggle the stress and the joy, the success and failure and through it all raise a family with the deep love that I see in hers.

I made it to page 29 before I cried. Rich shares a poem Nancy wrote to her grand daughters about what they would be seeing as she began aggressive treatments. Nancy was most assuredly scared herself of what would be coming, but she wrote a beautiful, uplifting poem to her littles to make it less scary for them. The truly remarkable thing, is that she did that for us, too. When we spent 3 days together for a web launch for Baby Lock, she hid her cane (read the book to learn it’s name and see a bit of her humor!). I saw her with out “Rachel” (her wig), she was still beautiful, but for camera she wore the wig. For her privacy and for the the benefit of all of us, Nancy sheltered us from most of the details. Finally, when the end was near, she wrote us a beautiful farewell.

Here’s to grace, joyful living and strong family bonds. My wish for each of you is that you will read her book, then Richard’s and feel the love of faith, family and friends pouring out of each page as I did. Nancy was so much more than a sewing personality to me. Of course, she taught me how to sew, present and teach. In the end, the greatest lessons she taught me were about faith, kindness and love. That is the depth of her lasting legacy.
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