Nancy Jean Scherwitz was raised on quiet Elsie Street in “Fort,” alongside her sisters Sandra and Peg. In the close-knit community where she was raised, she only needed to walk across the street to go to her elementary school, and was surrounded by nearby family, including aunts, uncles and many cousins. She attended Fort Atkinson High School and graduated with the Class of 1972. It was there that a love of sewing and design started with a home economics class. As a young woman of 5’ 11”, Nancy often had trouble finding pants that suited her. Emblematic of her can-do, resilient attitude, she decided if she could not shop for pants that fit her well, she would create her own.

Following graduation from Fort Atkinson High School, Nancy attended Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She strategically picked Viterbo because it was one of the only colleges in Wisconsin at that time that offered the medical records program that she had identified as exactly the field she wanted to study. She was committed to family and often returned to Fort Atkinson on the weekends. During her time at Viterbo, she made lasting friendships, including with her dear friend Jane Waldkirch. With Jane, she started to pursue a love of travel she maintained throughout her life. Notably in their years after graduating from Viterbo, the pair embarked on a camping trip to Colorado, a trip Nancy would remember and talk about for the rest of her life, partially because Elvis Presley died during that trip.

After completing college, Nancy moved to McHenry, IL to embark on her career. It was there that she started working at McHenry Hospital as the Medical Records Director. During her early years at the Hospital, she also attended school at night and completed her MBA at Roosevelt University. With this new accreditation in hand, along with her experience and work performance, she earned a promotion to Vice President of Planning and Marketing as the hospital moved to Route 31 in McHenry and rebranded as Northern Illinois Medical Center (NIMC). During her career at NIMC, she had numerous professional accomplishments, including helping to negotiate the merger that resulted in the formation of Centegra in 1995 (now a part of Northwestern Medicine), as well as planning the project that resulted in the opening of the Healthbridge Fitness Club in Crystal Lake, IL. However, family always remained a priority for Nancy. During the first year of her career, she made sure to set aside money to send her parents on a 2-week, multi-stop, all-expenses paid vacation to San Francisco, Hawaii, and Las Vegas for their 25th wedding anniversary. This trip was important to Nancy, as her father Alvin never took time for himself for vacations. She always treasured that she had done this for her parents, especially after the untimely passing of her father due to a car accident in 1979, less than a year after their trip.

While working at NIMC, she began a courtship that can be best described as… persistent. Local 4th generation funeral director Mark Justen frequently visited the medical records department to obtain death certificates. It was during one of these visits where he saw Nancy and was instantly infatuated with her. After Mark’s many unsuccessful attempts to ask her on a date, Nancy eventually agreed. It was on these dates where he fell in love with her kindness and her thoughtfulness. Nancy in turn fell in love with Mark’s larger-than-life attitude, and his willingness to be bold and live life in the moment. They married on Sept 6th, 1986, in front of hundreds of friends and family, a joyous day that both remembered for the rest of their lives.

After getting married they started their family, welcoming Robert into the world in 1988 and later Alex in 1991. They made their home on Green St., living almost directly across from Shepherd of the Hills church, where Nancy was an active member for years. During this time, she lovingly raised her children. With unmatched patience, she wrangled a house of two young boys and Mark, not a task for the faint of heart. In the mid-90’s, an opportunity arose for her to join the Justen family business. She attended Worsham Mortuary School, graduated in 1996 at the top of her class, and became a licensed funeral director, a qualification she would hold for 27 years. If Mark was the face of the business, Nancy was its heart, operating behind-the-scenes. She worked tirelessly over multiple avenues of the business, including marketing, design, business planning, writing, family interactions, and more. While working at the funeral home, Nancy helped to spearhead a project resulting in the completion of a lifelong dream of Mark’s – the construction of the current location of Justen Funeral Home in McHenry. The new facility opened its doors in the summer of 2008 and the couple successfully operated the business out of the new location for many years. Both Nancy and Mark were delighted when their son Robert joined the family business as their newest co-worker in 2016.

Throughout her professional career, managing time and effort for family was always paramount to Nancy. One of Nancy’s favorite summertime traditions was a yearly vacation down to the family lake house in Bull Shoals, AR with Mark, Rob, and Alex where they were joined by Nancy’s mother, Mary, and her sister, Peg, brother-in-law, Jim, and their sons. During these years, she also dedicated ample effort and time toward caring for her aging mother, Mary Scherwitz. It was a lifelong goal of Mary to age in her home and remain there through the end of her life. Nancy and Mark helped Mary do that by building a new house on Elsie St, right next to Nancy’s childhood home. Mary happily lived the remainder of her years there, in the neighborhood where she had raised her children and lived with her late husband. As Mary’s health deteriorated, Nancy and her sister Peg helped to provide in-home care to their mother. Ultimately, Nancy and the rest of the family were successful in fulfilling Mary’s wishes of remaining in her home with dignity for the duration of her life.

As her children eventually left home to go to college and pursue their careers, Nancy once again had time to immerse herself in her hobbies. She passionately continued her love of sewing, which expanded to embroidery and quilting. She was a frequent attendee of in-person seminars at Linda-Z’s studio in Arlington Heights, IL, and sometimes would travel to other states including Wisconsin and Missouri for classes and seminars. A lifelong Green Bay Packers fan, she used these talents to custom design and create a Green Bay Packers bag compliant with NFL safety rules regarding transparency and size. When she attended games of her favorite football team, other women would frequently stop Nancy and ask where they could purchase a similar bag. She would proudly respond that it was a custom design of hers! In addition to her love of sewing and the Green Bay Packers, one of the largest loves of her life were her dogs or, as she called them, her babies. While Alex and Rob were young, the Justen family welcomed their first sheepdog, AJ, into the family, and later they welcomed Buster. Years later after AJ and Buster passed, Nancy and Mark brought home Quincy and Sophie Grace. Nancy referred to her dogs as the greatest companions and company she could have, and they truly were one of the lights of her life.

On March 29th, 2020, Nancy woke up to the devastating discovery that Mark had unexpectedly passed away. Difficult news continued to emerge later in the year when she began to notice a tremor in her legs, soon accompanied by a decrease in handwriting size and a shortening of her gait. Upon visiting a neurologist, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in June 2020. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, this diagnosis, and the death of her husband, Nancy did her best to carry on. Nancy made the decision to retire and leave the funeral home in the capable hands of her son, Robert. She resolved to push back against the disease as much as she could and committed to personal training three days a week. She continued to immerse herself in sewing and quilting, and relished the time she had with her dogs. In May and later June of 2021, she made trips to Boston to visit her son Alex and Door County to celebrate her birthday. By August of that same year, both she and her sons realized something was wrong: her disease was progressing far more quickly than standard Parkinson’s disease. She was taking falls in her home routinely, and could no longer reliably walk or maintain balance. That autumn, after two stints in intensive inpatient rehabilitation and two stints in outpatient rehabilitation, she consulted with doctors at the Mayo Clinic. There, doctors informed her they could not provide a definitive diagnosis, but she likely had one or multiple of the more rare aggressive diseases related to Parkinson’s: vascular Parkinson’s disease, Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), or Parasupranuclear Palsy (PSP), none of which are curable and have few, if any, effective treatments. After exhausting options for in-home care, Nancy and her sons made the decision for her to move to Florida in May 2022. There she moved into Amavida, an assisted living community in Fort Myers, close to her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Krista Justen and Greg Spencer who were instrumental in helping her in her final years. Upon moving to Florida, she continued to participate in frequent physical therapy to fight against unrelenting progression of the disease. She remained mobile with use of a walker and often participated in aqua-therapy. Unfortunately, however, the disease progression continued. By February 2023, she developed neuropathy in her hands and feet, and could no longer walk or feed herself. By April 2023, she had to leave Amavida as her level of care had risen above what they could provide, eventually moving into the Arlington of Naples, a skilled nursing facility with enhanced levels of care. Once in Naples, the progression and speed of the disease again proved heartbreaking. By August, she struggled to eat her favorite foods due to difficulty swallowing and by September she was bed-bound. Throughout autumn she lost an alarming amount of weight and opted for a feeding tube, which only lasted a few weeks due to complicating factors. Nancy, Rob and Alex were blessed to be able to spend one last Christmas together, and she endured to see one more birthday of her son Robert in January. She passed peacefully, with her sons by her side.

Upon reflecting on Nancy’s life, there are ample admirable qualities that her sons Robert and Alex hope to continue to embody to honor her legacy, a few of which are described below:

1. Resiliency: Even in the face of unrelenting disease, Nancy never gave up. She continued fighting until her last breaths. This attitude was present throughout her life. When situations became difficult, she maintained an even, calm disposition. Rob particularly appreciates how Nancy helped him through a difficult transition at college during his first year away from home at the University of Arkansas.

2. Kindness: During her time at both Amavida and the Arlington, she became beloved by the care staff. At both communities, people noted the same thing: “Everybody loves Nancy.” Her kindness spoke for itself, even after her ability to use words was gone. This was both moving but unsurprising as that attitude was present her entire life.

3. Commitment to family: Nancy was always fiercely committed to her family. Examples are easy to see, through her commitment to her parents taking vacations and receiving dignified elder care, the care she took raising her sons, the time she spent with her sister and family on vacations, and finally her resolve to extend her life as long as possible to be there for her sons. In turn, her family feels blessed to have been graced by the privilege of having Nancy as their daughter, sister, wife, and mother.

Nancy is survived by her sons, Robert Justen of McHenry, Illinois, and Alex (Greg Jones) Justen of Somerville, Massachusetts; her sister, Peg (Jim) Thompson of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, nephews Adam (Montana Torbleau) Thompson of McFarland, WI, Brendan Thompson and Joey Thompson of Cottage Grove, WI; her sister-in-law, Krista (Greg Spencer) Justen of Cape Coral, Florida; and many cousins and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Alvin and Mary Scherwitz, sister, Sandra Simmons , husband Mark, and all of her aunts and uncles.

A public visitation for Nancy will take place at Justen Funeral Home in McHenry on Sunday February 4th, from 3 – 8 PM. A funeral service will take place the following morning Monday, February 5th, beginning with a service from 9:30 – 10:30 AM at Justen Funeral Home, followed by a procession to Holy Apostles Catholic Church in McHenry, with a service to begin at 11 AM. Interment to follow at St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in McHenry IL

In Lieu of flowers memorials in Nancy’s memory would be greatly appreciated to the following organizations:

The Multiple System Atrophy Coalition, to advance research toward curing MSA and supporting MSA patients and their families. Donations can be made at https://www.multiplesystematrophy.org.

Chicagoland Old English Sheepdog Club to fund their rescue efforts for Sheepdogs that need a home. Checks can be made payable to Chicagoland Old English Sheepdog Club And mailed to 9N973 Meadow Dr. Elgin, IL 60124