We were dazzled by appearances, and frankly speaking Nan’s appearance was quite ordinary, her smile gentle, not showy she wore big glasses. She didn't wear the latest teen fashions..  So much for the insight of teenagers.  When Nancy died in 1997 an entire cathedral filled with mourners whose ranks included bishops and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.  How did we get it so wrong in her brief and prosaic yearbook entry, “after school, it’s business?”

Immediately after school Nancy entered the Mother of Mercy Novitiate in Dallas, Pennsylvania and took her vows as a Sister of Mercy in August 1960.  Until 1974 she taught grade school and middle school in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania diocese.  She then moved to St. Aloysius Convent in Great Neck, New York as a member of the faculty. For the last nine years of her life she also worked in the ministry in the Diocesan Office of Rockville Centre.  No public honors or awards, no prizes, no scholarly degrees or academic accolades brought her life to anyone’s attention.   Yet she came to be known by many thousands as an extraordinary woman, not for a few outstanding achievements, but for her selfless daily service to other people. 

A eulogy written by Sister Maureen McCann sums up the Nancy Baker most of us never knew or suspected.  “Our Sister Nancy Baker would not have described herself as extraordinary.  But, those who have lived with her, worked wither, received her care and known her friendship, would certainly say that there was something of grandness about her presence, her simple, down-to-earth generosity and largesse of heart, her matter-of-fact, no-nonsense loving.”

Our classmate Ruth Ahearn reported that she recently had lunch with Carole Brown and Joanne LaPierre and that, “They each spoke of a very humble, saintly Nancy who did great things but without any fanfare...she never spoke of her daily work.”  But work she did as Sister McCann noted.  “I hesitate to say that she is enjoying ‘eternal rest.’  I have an idea there may be some creative negotiation, and, in that unconditional love which we are promised, God will create the suitable alternative.”

In 1995 when the bishop chose Nancy as one of three from the diocese to meet Pope John Paul II, Nancy said, "I don't know why he picked me, but I'm glad he did."  Even then Nancy was fighting the cancer that would soon take her life.  Others knew.  Sister McCanm said, “Nancy had a ‘get on with it’ attitude that drew people to her. . . .Choosing life for her was living fully and generously with and for others.”