Goodbye “Nana”💕

It is with sadness that I share this news with family and friends. My Mom, the one and only, beautiful, sweet, generous, creative and loving, resilient and strong, Nancy Halverson Wellman has passed. She entered hospice care at Angel’s Grace in Oconomowoc on Friday, October 24th, after a brief illness and passed that evening in a woodland setting with Sinatra playing in the background.

She was born in 1938 on a dairy farm in Vesper, Wisconsin. Her parents, Walt and Mert Halverson, were wise, resourceful, kind, and generous. She grew up as the only girl in a family of 4 kids. My Grandpa called her “the petunia in the onion patch”.

She graduated from Pittsville HS and moved to Milwaukee where she met my Dad at a music venue called "The Eagles Club". The venue is still in operation as "The Rave". In an interesting twist, her youngest grandchild currently works at that very same place.

Mom was a naturally talented trumpet player and pianist, at one point playing in a community band conducted by her daughter. She travelled far and wide marching in parades, playing concerts, and participating in competitions with the Oconomowoc American Legion Band. She loved music.

She took great pride in her work with the Oconomowoc Area School District as a Library Media Aide, a Home Healthcare worker, and eventually, as a “tech” with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in Fisheries Management.

Mom was a positive thinker, an incredible problem-solver, a people person, and a woman of great faith and energy. She loved generously and lived joyfully.

She is survived by her daughter, Patricia Rohwer; two grandchildren; two brothers, George (Bonnie) Halverson and Glen (Florrie) Halverson; and dozens of wonderful friends and former co-workers.

According to her wishes there will be a family ceremony at the farm in Vesper, WI, where she was born.

I will miss her so very much, but she won’t really be gone because she’s so much a part of who I am. Goodbye Mom.💕