In Memory

Nancy Potter (Testa)

Nancy Potter (Testa)



 
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10/26/15 12:48 PM #1    

David Cannon

In reflecting on the passing of Nancy Potter Testa on October 21, 2015, I realized that our friendship lasted for more than 55 years -- making it longer than with any person except Louis Calasibetta who befriended me on the steps at Mt. Hebron (Buzz Aldrin Middle School) on the first day I arrived there in October 1958 after my family moved to Upper Montclair from Fairfax, Virginia.
 
Nancy was a classmate and wound up playing my granddaughter in the Mt. Hebron production of "Johnny Tremain." As she led my elderly character out to center stage while I delivered the line "Grandpa Lapham befitted his venerable years as head of the Lapham household" she grasped my right hand with such nervous intensity that she pierced my palm with her thumbnail. I did not let her know what she had done until we were off stage. 
 
That moment helped solidify our friendship and soon we were playing chess over the phone for more than an hour virtually every night for nearly a month, much to the displeasure of my four sisters who were all expecting calls.
 
In high school and college we ran with different crowds, but both wound up working at advertising agencies in New York City. By then she had married Gary Testa who had played football at MHS and in college. John Hosay, who later married Gary's sister, Kathy, described Nancy this past Saturday, as a confident, upbeat Mary Tyler Moore type figure when he first met her and he loved going to their home and
engaging in political discussions.
 
I recall what a brilliant mind she had for math, once calculating in her head within a split-second what the 17.65% agency commission would be on a media buy when I mentioned that the advertising firm I was working for had just run a unique multipage gatefold ad in Forbes magazine.
 
By then we were neighbors living two doors apart on Carriage Way in Montclair. Nancy and Gary had a son and daughter, Michael and Katy, who became friends with my son and daughter, Jesse and Ashley, not only on the block but also at Elm Tre Pool in West Caldwell in the summer where they joined the swim team. During those years, my wife from Hasbrouck Heights, Joanne, spent many hours talking to Nancy, especially on Sundays when Gary was at home doing what he loved, making Sunday sauce for family dinner. 
 
While Nancy and Gary were raising their children she moved from advertising to the catering industry. I was still working as a freelance advertising writer but had left New York to start Videotape Highlights of Your Life in 1979. Often while videotaping wedding receptions and bar or bat mitzvah celebrations, I would find Nancy overseeing those parties at the Richfield Regency in Verona.
 
Naturally, Nancy and Gary were among the 20 people my wife snuck into our home for my surprise 40th birthday. Eventually our families both moved off of Carriage Way, and the Elm-Tre pool and tennis courts property was sold to a housing developer, ending our idyllic summers, but Nancy and Joanne remained friends seeing each other for brunch on birthdays. When the MHS 50th reunion for the Class of 1964 rolled around, we drove Nancy there.
 
This past Saturday, Michael speaking on behalf of himself and Katy, at a private celebration of Nancy's life, spoke of how fortunate they were to have had Nancy as their mother because of her all-caring love, young spirit, gentleness and funny unconventional humor. She will be greatly missed by both of our families.
 
 

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