Obituary of Nancy Miller

On Monday, January 9, 2017 Nancy Carla Miller, age 55, of Brandon, Manitoba, beloved daughter, mother, sister, partner, and friend, passed peacefully at Health Sciences Centre after a valiant battle with leukemia. Nancy was born on July 8, 1961 in Portage la Prairie, the middle child of Leslie Edwin and Shirley Josephine Paine. The family, including Nancy's older brother Matthew and younger sister Patricia, moved to Brandon in 1964. Her ambition had always been to become a teacher and she earned her teaching degree from Brandon University, graduating with honours, and was the winner of the Governor General's Award for Excellence. For the past 15 years she worked with the Brandon School Division and her last years were happily spent at Meadows School, where she loved and was loved dearly by the students and staff. Her last year was highlighted by becoming the resident music teacher there. She had an abiding love of theater and many will recall her performances in such productions as Beauty and the Beast (as Mrs. Potts), not to mention her wonderful work making costumes. Her sons Stephan, born in 1992, and Tommy, born in 1999, were an endless source of joy and pride for her and she was truly devoted to them. In 2010 Nancy met Jeff, the love of her life, and together they spent many happy days, becoming engaged in 2016 with plans to marry in 2017. Her vibrant spirit and ready laugh were loved by all who knew her. Nancy is predeceased by her father, Les "Cham" Paine and grandparents George and Edna Tomlinson and Leslie and Ruby Paine, as well as aunts Marion Kingston and Grace Funk. She is survived and will be greatly missed by partner Jeff Bettle, sons John Edwin Stephan Miller and Thomas Bladen Nelson Miller, mother Shirley Paine, brother Matthew (Cindy Noppen) Paine, and sister Trish Boggs, as well as nieces, nephews, and cousins, and many friends who will miss her every day. A memorial service to celebrate Nancy's life will be held on February 4, 2017 at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium at 205 – 20th Street in Brandon at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, 675 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0V9 or charity of choice. Special thanks to the staff of GD6 in the Health Sciences Centre for their extraordinary care and compassion. I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen, of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been; Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were, with morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair. I sit beside the fire and think of how the world will be when winter comes without a spring that I shall ever see. For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green. I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and people who will see a world that I shall never know. But all the while I sit and think of times there were before, I listen for returning feet and voices at the door. J.R.R. Tolkien