In the end, we all become stories, and Nancy Doucette will leave behind many that will often be retold by her family and friends. Nancy L. Doucette, 82, of Holland Township, NJ, passed away on Monday, November 4, 2024, at her home after a short battle with lung cancer. While she won’t be making any new stories, she will live on in our memories.

If you were to hear the stories from different people, you might not know they were about the same person. From a kind-hearted grandmother always ready to bake cookies to a trophy winning poker player, Nancy was a complex woman who didn’t fit into a regular mold.

When someone loves life as much as Nancy did and is as interested in other people’s stories as she was, people will, of course, remember her as a great listener and a kind, down-to-earth person. To her husband Paul, who predeceased her by 926 days after being married for 21,491, she was the love of his life and the light of his days.

To her three children, Michelle, Russell, and Richard, she was a loving mother who taught them all how to be kind, big-hearted people. But she was a mom to their larger circle as well. When her kids were in high school, it was not uncommon to find one of their friends sitting at the kitchen table talking to their mom even if none of them were at home. Her love embraced her children’s spouses too—Michael Cunningham, Heather Doucette, and Cindy Doucette—whom she loved as part of her big extended family.

Her four grandchildren, Amelia, John, Sara, and Emma, were each cherished for their own unique selves, and she was always her grandchildren’s biggest champion, celebrating their successes and attending their recitals and games in person or through videos. She was a dedicated gingerbread house baker and jigsaw puzzle maker and frequently bragged about her grandchildren to anyone who would listen.

Her family will also remember her as the one who brought them all together for family vacations, from camping in a little pop-up canvas camper as kids to a cruise to Bermuda for her and Paul’s 50th wedding anniversary, to a house at the beach or in the country where they could all come together.

Nancy loved to travel and had an adventurous spirit. Her first big trip was with her best friend Linda Kieseling when they visited London and Paris on a shoestring with the world’s largest suitcases (without wheels). Who knew Paris had so many stairs? By 2015, many trips later, she had learned her lesson and managed to travel for three weeks in South America with only a carry-on bag, which included a visit to Machu Picchu.

She had many friends and loved a good party. Many will remember her for her great sense of humor, how she enjoyed a good story, and her winning smile. She knew just how to put other people at ease, and before you knew it, she had you telling her your entire life story.

In her later years, Nancy and her husband played Texas Hold’Em as part of the World Tavern Poker League and made many friends with the other players. She was a bit of a card shark—extremely patient and would let the winning cards come to her. She was often underestimated because of her age and gender, except by those she’d played with before. She was also known for her genuine good luck, to the point where her family knew if she entered a contest, they shouldn’t bother since she was a sure winner almost every time.

While never “winning it big” in Vegas, she nonetheless would return better off than when she left most of the time. Born on January 21, 1942, to the late Edward John and Marion Louise (Reid) Kasprak in Bronx, NY, Nancy grew up in Perth Amboy, NJ. She moved to Holland Township, NJ, in 1976 and worked as a bookkeeper for Chubb Insurance in Warren, NJ, for over 20 years. Nancy was always a big reader and loved learning new things and earned her bachelor’s degree from Thomas A. Edison State College in 1995. Nancy was predeceased by her beloved husband Paul J. Doucette in 2022 and her two brothers, Raymond Kasprak and Michael Kasprak.

Services will be private at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are under the care of the Johnson-Walton Funeral Home, 24 Church Road, Milford, NJ.

Memorial contributions may be made to fight children’s hunger at the Flemington Food Pantry (flemingtonfoodpantry.org) or to fight children’s cancer at St. Jude’s (stjude.org). (Please copy and paste link in new web browser.)