Anne Clay

Anne C. “Nancy” Clay (nee Touey), August 13, 2020, returned to God’s Abode, welcomed by a multitude of her ‘beloved family saints’. Family and Home were the pillars of her life. Nancy knew her ancestors in a way it took most of us a lifetime to understand. She credited them with bestowing upon her entire family the gifts of wit, storytelling, hospitality, faith, selfless love and sacrifice.

Nancy lived her faith deeply and completely. Anyone who has ever known Nancy knew her saintly forbearance, keen intuition, brilliant insight, and her capacity for giving of herself unconditionally. Nancy was by nature a counselor. Her enduring patience and wisdom made her a wonderful listener and keen conversationalist. She knew everything about everyone she ever met, and remembered it forever. She was a gifted teacher as well. She instructed her beloved family with her worthy example, but also through proverb and parable. She knew and appreciated the importance of story: the way in which it could convey deep truths. She would explain that poets are not unlike prophets, and so even her love for literature was a manifestation of her faith.

Nancy’s love was boundless. It extended well beyond her expansive family. She loved and welcomed so many, made so many feel at home. Her heart broke for the unloved and committed to loving them, especially children. She loved every child on God’s green earth.

Family and friends alike have long known the grace with which she gave comfort; the way each meal was a feast and a sacrament, the way every gift revealed her deep knowledge of you and wrapped so beautifully as to make you feel worthy, the tenderness with which she attended your fever, sickness, weakness, or heaviness of heart.

Nancy understood the real meaning of Home. She was a master at the ‘Irish art’ of hospitality, but she understood something much deeper about home. She would say that “we live in the shelter of each other.” She did not consider a house a home no matter how long one lived there. A house was but a vessel, empty except for the love, the acceptance, the comfort, and the shelter it contains. Home is something you can bring with you. Home is love. Home is family. Home is Heaven and Heaven is Home. That is how Nancy lived her entire life.

Nancy celebrated life. She danced and sang and she loved ceaselessly. Nancy remains with the communion of saints. She smiles upon us now and is not only a shining example of Christ’s love, but a real and powerful spirit and intercessor, sheltering us and nurturing us. We weep for her parting – in fact we sob with grief – but we have inherited her faith and know she is with us always.

Nancy was the beloved wife of the late Alvin A. Clay; loving mother of Alvin Clay, III (Kathleen), Anthony Clay (Bernadette), Martin Clay (Judith), Lawrence Clay (Nancy), Charles Clay (Dana), Anne Barr (Dennis), Emily Clay (John Pinto), Christine Gorka (Paul), Connie Pelesh (Jeff), and Monica Clay; caring grandmother  (“Nonnie”) of 36 including the late Claire E. Clay, and great-grandmother of 13; devoted sister of Helen T. Kelly (the late Gerald), the late William P. Touey (Nancy), Sr. Constance Marie, IHM, and John A. Touey. Nancy was predeceased by her beloved parents William and Emily Touey (nee McCormick), her siblings Emily “Mimi” Touey and Kathleen M. Monzo (the late Carl).

Relatives and friends are invited to her Visitation, Tuesday, August 18, 2020, 6:00-8:00 PM and Wednesday, August 19, 2020, 9:30-10:45 AM at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 136 Saxer Ave, Springfield, PA 19064, followed by her Funeral Mass at 11:00 AM. Mass will be live broadcasted at www.facebook.com/thedonohuefuneralhome. Interment SS Peter & Paul Cemetery.

Contributions to The Sisters of Life, St. Malachy’s Convent, 1413 N 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122 or https://sistersoflife.org/, would be appreciated.