Nancy Sybil Hall Lowe Taylor Jones passed away, at the age of 79, in the early morning hours of Thursday, April 19, 2018. Nancy was born and grew up in the Greer and Lyman communities of Spartanburg County. She was a middle child, the only girl. Her parents were industrious members of the mill community. Nancy was a member of the first graduating class of James F. Byrnes High School.
Nancy first married my father and had four children. They lived in Spartanburg, SC where Nancy was first a stay at home mother, worked for several years as the credit manager at Lerner's Department Store, then worked several years part time as a church secretary. Nancy was a whirlwind, intense, chaotic, often angry and suffered from wild mood swings. Her family lived on guard. There were many good times: days at Rainbow Lake and Lake Lure, vacations in Myrtle Beach, trips just for a picnic, sometimes to Maggie Valley or Cherokee. Nancy lost her anchor and stability with the untimely passing of my father in 1986.
Nancy had difficulty with widowhood and sought significant relationships, two of which turned into marriages. She married Harvey "Buck" Taylor in the early 1990s. They adopted a child, but Nancy was soon a widow again. She married Thomas Ree Jones in the late 1990s and they moved to Seveirville, TN. They first lived in a RV community with the child also adopted by Mr. Jones. They moved to an apartment community for their last years of marriage. Nancy was a widow again in 2006, her health began to fail and she was first admitted to a geriatric psychiatric hospital in Knoxville in early 2007. It was a relief when she was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, something I had often thought as an adult, but had not the knowledge to label during my childhood. Nancy moved to an assisted living facility in Spartanburg in 2007 and to a nursing facility in Charleston in 2008.
Nancy was a female Great Santini but, due to her failing health and confinement to a nursing home, did not enjoy the redemptive phase of the Death of Santini. "She was a pistol" (nursing home staff quote) until Easter week when she suffered a series of strokes. Nancy spent most of her final days at MUSC, transferring back to Riverside for palliative care on Tuesday afternoon. She may not have understood, but I made my peace with her and told her I forgave her and loved her. I could not bring myself to say those words for many years, but I needed to give her some peace in these last days. Yes, there was love, love for the mother who did not hurt her children, a woman I never knew.
God rest her soul. Peace be with us all.
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