Sam and CJ Ginder and Family

This tribute is dedicated to the Nancy Elizabeth Ginder Memorial Scholarship fund by her parents CJ and Sam Ginder and her sister Janie Ginder Allen, who created this scholarship for students interested in childhood education, particularly for those with special needs.

Into each life some rain must fall, and a charmed life can turn to dust as quickly as a dragonfly can beat its wings. On 11 October 1983, CJ, Janie and I lost our Nancy. She was 24 years old, and seemed to be in the bloom of health, but was taken from us by a pulmonary embolism. It was the same thing that Serena Williams had 10 years later, but medical science had improved so that Serena’s problem was detected early, and she went on to be the top-ranked women’s tennis player in the world.

Nancy was a remarkable child. She loved people. She would run up to our neighbors, the parents of her friends, grab their hands and talk to them, and greet everyone happily before she went off to play. More than once I received phone calls from these parents telling me what a wonderful, winning child she was. Nancy was High on Life.
My two girls were caught up in the turmoil of the 1960s. Fortunately they had an intelligent and compassionate mother to help them navigate the times. Their conservative, Victorian father never really knew how to talk to little girls about nonsense such as smoking pot, Woodstock, and protesting everything from the Vietnam war to why the days of the week were named the way they were. But being a flower child and protesting seemed to be the thing to do in the 60s. Thanks to CJ, my two girls survived the times and me.

Nancy wanted to go to Frostburg State College because some of her friends were there and she wanted to have the experience of a liberal arts education and living away from home. It’s part of growing up. Nancy prospered at Frostburg. She found her way and found what she wanted to do in life. She became enthralled with teaching and began taking courses in education. She became an assistant teacher to get hands-on experience in the classroom with young children, and she loved it. She developed a passion for teaching disadvantaged children with special education needs. This effort had its own unique and difficult challenges that only a person with a loving nature could step up to. That was Nancy. Towards the end of her education, she came to me to ask if I would support her to go to graduate school. I said I would, enthusiastically. She was about to start when she started feeling poorly and lacked energy. Our primary doctor could not detect anything. Neither could a second doctor, nor a third.

Every parent lives with the nightmare that something tragic might happen to one of their pups. If it does, nobody can understand what has happened to you. It is a life-changing event; nothing ever returns to normal. Nothing is ever as it was. It is a sadness you never get over. You just learn to live with it and move on.
And so, it has been for CJ, Janie and me. We’ve never gotten over losing Nancy, but our love for her still burns brightly, and not a day goes by that we don’t think of her. Perhaps you can feel her presence just as we do.
(written by Sam Ginder)

Memorial gifts can be made at www.frostburg.edu/makeagift. Enter “Ginder” in the keyword search and click on the scholarship name to designate your gift.