GRIEF, I have learned, is really just LOVE. It's all the love you want to give, but can not. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat and the hollow part in your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.
Taffy Nelson Zadnichek, MT (ASCP), age 77, passed away in her sleep at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, at home in Fairhope, Alabama, following a courageous 13-year struggle with Alzheimer's. Taffy's beloved son Miles was holding her hand when she peacefully slipped into eternity.
Taffy was born on Dec. 3, 1944. She was a native of Bay Minette, Alabama, the beautiful red headed precocious daughter of Baldwin and Escambia Counties’ Public Health Officer Dr. William Bruce Nelson and Edith Monroe Nelson, RN. From her earliest age, Taffy absorbed medical science from her loving supportive parents.
Taffy enjoyed an idyllic childhood growing up in the small town Deep South of the 1950s. During the Great Polio Epidemic, Taffy was inoculated with the polio vaccine by her father in front of worried families to show that the vaccine was safe to use. Her selfless example saved many children's lives during that desperate era.
Taffy graduated from Baldwin County High School in 1963, then graduated from Auburn University in 1968 with a degree in chemistry. Taffy was initially hired as the first female chemist at Ciba-Geigy in McIntosh, Alabama, but the company went out on strike before she could start.
Taffy then graduated from the Mobile Infirmary School of Medical Technology and became a member of the American Society Of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) in 1969. Her clinical laboratory career spanned a total of 43 years at Mobile Infirmary, Thomas Hospital, South Baldwin Hospital and Computer Program & Systems (CPSI).
During the 1970s, Dr. Samuel Eichold at the Mobile Infirmary assigned Taffy for five summers to manage the clinical laboratory at Camp Seale Harris for diabetic children then held on the Maubila Scout Reservation near Jackson, Alabama. The lab was responsible for the 24 hour monitoring of 120 or more juvenile diabetics from throughout Alabama.
Taffy supported Dr. Eichold and his colleague Dr. Leon Smelo from Birmingham, Alabama, both endocrinologists, in managing the children’s diabetes while they enjoyed an outdoors camp experience with swimming, canoeing, archery, hiking and arts and crafts. Medical school students. hospital physician residents and nurses also volunteered their services. For her distinguished service, Dr. Eichold presented Taffy with the prestigious Doc E Award in 1972.
Taffy was a lifetime member of the Auburn Alumni Association; member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Charles S. Stewart Chapter, Foley, Alabama; Daughters of the American Revolution, Ecor Rouge Chapter; Fairhope Garden Club, Eastern Shore Republican Women, Cotillion Society, Fairhope Yacht Club Auxiliary, Fairhope United Methodist Church, Eastern Shore Art Association, Fairhope Single Tax Corp. and Charter Member of the Maids of Jubilee, all of Fairhope.
Taffy over many years also attended meetings of the Propeller Club of Mobile, Mobile Council of the US Navy League and Fort Blakeley Sons Of Confederate Veterans Camp 1864 in Foley with her husband Louis. Taffy was fascinated with the Mobile waterfront and greatly enjoyed riding on tug boats and naval warships, as well as being invited to dinner on merchant ships visiting the port. She also was a docent at the Fairhope Museum of History and the Marietta Johnson Museum of Fairhope.
Taffy is survived by her husband of nearly 49 years Marvin Louis Zadnichek II of Fairhope; her son Miles Nelson Zadnichek, daughter-in-law Meredith Bell Zadnichek and granddaughter Edith Grace Zadnichek, all of Sandy Springs, Georgia; her brother George Kennedy Nelson and sister-in-law Sue McDanal Nelson of Bay Minette; niece Macy Lee Nelson of Daphne, Alabama; nephew Scott Blandon Nelson, his wife Katie Vogel Nelson and children Austin and Allie Nelson, all of Birmingham, Alabama, plus cousins and other relatives. Taffy was predeceased by her parents William Bruce Nelson, M.D., and Edith Monroe Nelson, R.N., plus brother William James Nelson, all of Bay Minette.
Taffy will always be remembered by family and friends for her magnificent smile, heartwarming laughter, her hats, lighting up a room with her personality, tolerance for all whom she met, scientific brilliance, love of animals, kindness to the less fortunate and generosity of soul. Taffy made the most mundane of everyday tasks FUN. Christmas and Mardi Gras were her two favorite seasons of the year. She loved ice cream!
Taffy’s family thanks Comfort Care Hospice for their dedicated care, as well as her loving sitters Audrey Barr, Sua Schild and Tommie Peterson. Taffy donated her remains to the USA Anatomical Board for medical research. Taffy's brother George will host her Celebration of Life at the First United Methodist Church in the Family Life Center, Bay Minette, Alabama, on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. CST.
