Nancy Makowsky

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Nancy Makowsky
Nancy Makowsky

Nancy Benjamin Makowsky, 61, of San Clemente, passed away at home, surrounded by family on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.

Nancy was born June 28, 1954, in Kansas City, Kas., the daughter of J. Philip and Doris (Roesler) Benjamin and raised from the age of 9 in Oklahoma City, Okla., where she graduated from John Marshall High School in 1972. In 1976, she graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in nutrition and dietetics.

After seeing California as a teenager, Nancy dreamed of living by the ocean. She moved to San Diego in 1978 and worked first in door to door sales and then as a sales rep for Hunt-Wesson Foods in Orange County. Her natural sales ability led to a career in real estate in 1988 as a new homes agent selling throughout Orange County for a number of different builders. She transitioned into resale in 1997 and joined the Laguna Board of Realtors, working for First Team Nolan and then for Strada, a boutique real estate company which was purchased by Coldwell Banker, the company she remained with until her passing.

Makowsky loved Laguna Beach and lived there for many years before she and Brad relocated to San Clemente in 2010 following a devastating fire at their Laguna Beach home. Makowsky had many friends both in the real estate industry and throughout the communities where she lived.

Makowsky met her soul mate and future husband Brad in Dana Point Harbor on a sailing trip with friends. This was the beginning of many adventures together including sailing, hiking, mountain biking, skiing and traveling abroad. They were married in Hawaii in 1989 and enjoyed 27 years together, each successful in their own careers and enjoying their wide variety of friends and family located around the country. In San Clemente, Makowsky became involved in the local garden club, making friends in her new hobby. She was an entertaining aunt to her nieces and nephews, who all adored her. She loved keeping in contact with them and going back to Oklahoma to visit when they were there.

Makowsky’s beautiful smile and generous spirit attracted so many people to her and her occasionally irreverent sense of humor made wherever she was, the place to be. She left a legacy of her eternal optimism to inspire all of us. Her illness never dampened that optimism, as she always found something to laugh about and appreciate every day. Makowsky’s loving spirit and robust laughter will be missed by all who were blessed to know her.

Makowsky is survived by her husband, Brad Lee Makowsky; her father, John Philip Benjamin; brother Tom and his wife Brena of Austin, Tex., and their children, Paul and his wife Lesley, Jane and granddaughter Robyn; brother Bruce and his wife Becky of Claremore, Okla., and their daughter Hannah; sister Mary (Keaveny) and her husband Chris of Madison, Wisc., and their children, Clint, Ryan, Kevin, Megan and Joseph; brother-in-law Gary Corrales of Henderson, Nev.; and sisters-in-law Kathy Van Voorhis of Henderson, Nev., and Pam Corrales of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. She was preceded in death by her mother, Doris Benjamin of Oklahoma City, Okla. A private burial at sea will be Wednesday, March 16. A gathering to celebrate her life will be at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at her favorite swim spot, Shaw’s Cove, in Laguna Beach.

 

 

Gone From My Sight

by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,”
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

And that is dying…

 

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