Nancy Dodge Bastow, 87 of Auburn, Maine died gently in her sleep June 28, at the home of her daughter, Susan. Nancy was born February 13, 1935, along with her twin brother Neil in Boothbay Harbor, to Clarence S. and Ruth Jacobs Dodge. Three of her lifelong waypoints occurring on that single day — #13 became her life’s lucky lodestar, being a twin was her special superpower, and a sustained belief she offered the world a unique perspective, having hailed from “the Hahbah.”

Nancy graduated valedictorian from Boothbay High School in 1953. She then graduated UMaine Orono as a registered nurse in 1957. On September 13, 1958, she married her Maine sweetheart, Richard F. Bastow and the pair bought a home in Auburn, started their careers and their family. Both taught at Central Maine Technical College for a period of years. Then, Nancy returned to UMaine for a Master’s in Guidance & Counseling. She spent many fulfilling years at Turner High School in the Guidance Office.

Nancy and Richard bought lake property in Poland Springs in 1968 and together with their young daughters cleared the land and built a summer camp on Range Pond where the family summered every year, ultimately welcoming another generation to the joys of camp. She was happiest at the lake and tireless in her efforts to enhance the beauty and health of the woods through ceaseless twig collecting and intensive raking projects.

Nancy’s nursing background always filtered her interests. She spent many years with Maine Heath Systems Agency, a collaborative state-wide team working out early versions of Maine’s comprehensive health care plan. In 1982, she became intensely interested in alternative eating as a means to healthier living and studied at the Kushi Institute in Beckett, MA. She taught and counseled adopting a macrobiotic diet and both her tiny frame and prodigious energy were points of attraction for her devotees.

Nancy belonged to the High Street Congregational Church for many years. She also joined and supported Unity of Greater Portland, becoming a licensed minister after studies at Unity Village in Kansas City, MO. Nancy was actively engaged in supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, the Right to Choose and all women’s equality issues. She celebrated victory in Roe v Wade in 1973, believing she’d helped secure a more equal and promising future for her own daughters.

Nancy zipped around the state in an always bright yellow car with the Maine plate NB-13. She was an indefatigable knitter, puzzler and collector of books. Cats had special privileges in her world. The self-study Course in Miracles gave her spiritual life guidance and a roster of high-spirited friends. Nancy may be the longest, uninterrupted subscriber to “The Boothbay Register;” leery of any news she had not read for herself in “The Register.” She loved to talk and engage with strangers, never understanding a portion of her charm was her deep Downeast accent and limitless cache of idioms. She was both cunnin’ and tough as a boiled owl.

Nancy is predeceased by her husband, Richard, of 62 years. She leaves behind a family she loved and was fiercely proud of, Susan (Carroll) Weimer Jr and their children Katherine and Benjamin Weimer of Manassas, VA, and her youngest daughter Bonnie (Gregory) Kuykendall of Tucson, AZ and Belfast, ME. She was an enthusiastic aunt to her nieces and nephews —with an unwavering focus on her twin’s children.

Nancy will be laid to ultimate rest at the Bastow family plot in Lakeside Cemetery in Oakland, Maine.

Please sign the guestbook at www.bakerpostfh.com.

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