I really didn’t mean for this blog to turn into an obituary column.

But this year has been especially difficult. We have lost a great many people who made Delray Beach special.

On Monday, April 28, I received a message that my friend of many years Nancy Stewart-Franczak passed away. Nancy was a wonderful person—hard working, sincere, funny, down to earth, loving and tough as they come. She fought hard and I never once saw her lose faith.

I’ve known Nancy for more years than I can recall. We ran in the same circles, had lots of mutual friends and grew close over the years. When I turned 60 last August, I asked Nancy and her friend and colleague Jennifer Costello to plan a celebration.

We are growing older, and I wanted more than anything else a chance to get everyone together again. We don’t do that as much as we should. The loss we have experienced recently reminds me why we should prioritize the important relationships in our lives.

Nancy and Jen went above and beyond for me. We spent hours at my house talking about guest lists and activities, music, decorations, menus and all sorts of stuff. We laughed. A lot.

Nancy gave me the party of a lifetime—she and Jen are great at what they do –but in my case I felt their professionalism was infused with love. I’m grateful for that love.

I know Nancy was thankful for the special relationships in her life. She had a wonderful smile. She was an interesting combination of warmth and strength. Nancy exuded strength. I never saw her waver. Not once.

Nancy and I spoke a lot over the years about Delray Beach. We shared a love for the town and the people who rolled up their sleeves and made it a special place.

The good things that make cities sing don’t happen by accident. Community building requires people to dig deep, work hard, take risks and will good things into existence. Nancy was one of the people who did just that—for decades.

She was a civic entrepreneur, and her canvas was the special event space. She believed in the power of events to make a positive difference in the lifeblood of a community. She was involved in every detail of her events which was made them so great. Her passion for her work and her team and her city made Nancy a one-of-a-kind contributor.

She took pride in Delray’s progress and reveled in the camaraderie and comfort she found in this large circle of extraordinary people—people who came together to build a sense of community and to shape a place into a home.

When I was an elected official, Nancy invited Diane and I to go to Gilroy, California to visit something called a Garlic Festival. Nancy had dreams and wanted to show us what a festival could do for a community. We made the trip, and I was blown away by the crowds and the amount of money that was raised for small nonprofits in Gilroy.

I saw Nancy’s vision and was proud to support it. She grew the Garlic Festival into a major event, with chefs, competitions, concerts, rides for the kids and best of all fundraising opportunities for small groups doing great work in our city.

A few years later, I was disappointed when a few folks on the commission turned on the Garlic Festival forcing it to relocate to Lake Worth. During this time, I did my best to support Nancy as a friend. We had many long conversations where I just listened. She was hurt but determined. A lesser person would have given up, but that’s Nancy. She took her talents to other cities with Garlic Festival and other events such as Lagoon Fest and Bacon & Bourbon. Those communities benefitted from Nancy’s leadership, vision and the execution of her team the Festival Management Group.

During this trying time Nancy never stopped dreaming of doing events for her beloved Delray Beach.

She was tested, but she never gave up. We saw our friend’s motives questioned by people who should have known better. From watching Nancy and her team, I can attest that running an event organization is not a get rich quick scheme, it’s a labor of love, full of risk. It requires hot and sweaty work, worries about weather, insurance, competition and any number of things that can go wrong in what has become a world fraught with weirdness and danger.

Nancy and her team at Festival Management Group produced Garlic Festival, Delray Affair, Bacon and Bourbon, Lagoon Fest and other special events because they loved this community and wanted to give families a fun and safe place to be. They also wanted to showcase exhibitors and artists and help community groups raise the funds they need.

Nancy and her husband John and their team hung in there…and I was told right after Nancy passed by her partner and friend Bern that they had been working on bringing Garlic Fest back to Delray after a 9-year absence. They felt good about their meeting with Mayor Tom Carney. Nancy knew this was coming about and I’m sure she was happy.

I enjoyed every moment I spent over the years with Nancy. I loved visiting her home, our dogs got to know each other, and I enjoyed getting to know her husband as well.

Nancy helped to put modern day Delray Beach on the map. She did so without fanfare, and she worked hard to make her events meaningful, safe and fun.

She longed to do a “Delray reunion” event and I wanted to do it with her and a few others. Sadly, we couldn’t make it happen because life, illness, jobs and obligations got in the way.

Nancy wanted to bring everyone from the All America City era together—the first award was won in 1993. She wanted to celebrate others who made a mark but maybe weren’t thanked sufficiently for doing so. She was thinking of others and of Delray Beach—as always.

Of course Nancy was a major contributor as well. She did an awful lot. Events in Pineapple Grove. Concerts with big names. Wine and seafood events that featured local chefs…the list goes on and on.

She was a good person. A really good person.

And I loved her. We all did.

She left a mark. She worked so hard. She was strong, so strong.

Nancy will be missed by all lucky enough to have known her.