A fabulous woman has left the stage!

Nancy Bergren Grimes took her final bow on December 11th, 2025, from a life well-lived. Her 76 years were full of adventure, rich friendships, and passionate work. A lifelong diver, she loved the sensation of flying and the beauty of the underwater world. It was on a dive boat where she met the love of her life, Humphrey Sutton, with whom she shared nearly two fabulous decades of work and play.  An avid reader of fantasy literature, a student of history and mythology, a lover of the arts; Nancy’s imagination was as rich as they come, and her sense of magic showed itself in her contagious enjoyment of life.

Nancy loved gardens, and through her creativity and skill in horticultural design and curation of garden ornaments and she was able to spend her career among gardens through the successful small businesses she founded and ran — first at Living Green in Manhattan and then at New England Garden Ornaments in North Brookfield, MA. She can also be credited as a co-founder of her daughter’s business, Mace Chasm Farm in Keeseville, NY, because her abilities to problem-solve, drive truck and trailer, and keep the place looking smart played no small role in the farm’s start-up.

The places that she called home were uniquely beautiful; she arranged spaces with the same natural talent that she brought to her work in garden design. From the loft in Manhattan where she and Humphrey threw great parties, to the old fish and game club in Holland where their daughter Courtney grew up, to the beautiful gardens at the Barre Rd house in Hardwick, to the ‘river view’ and ‘treetops’ apartments she kept as she bounced between helping at the farm in Keeseville and being with her friends in Hardwick - each space was at its best in her care. In Hardwick Nancy found incredible friends, and they had incredible fun. A long walk to talk and enjoy the good stone walls and flora of Hardwick would never grow old for Nancy. In her granddaughter, Billie Blaze, she found an equally joyful playmate with whom to share gardening, ice cream dates, swims in the lake, and the fun of dressing up.

Born September 20th, 1949, to Howard and Dorothy Grimes, Nancy was the third of five sisters. The Grimes girls grew up between Wellesley, MA and Waterville Valley, NH. Nancy attended Emma Willard High School in Troy, crediting the impressive library there with drawing her into literature and study. She went on to Middlebury College, where she studied history and Greek mythology, made great friends, engaged in the anti-war movement, and had a grand time. In the years after college she traveled, waitressed, skied, taught history, sold t-shirts, and lived in Waterville Valley, Jackson, and Austria before making her way to New York City to put down roots.

Nancy lived with both whimsy and also a plan, and these things together created incredible grace. Stoic in the face of pain, humorous in the face of the mundane - Nancy managed life well, and we learned from her approach. At the end of her life, as she had always said she would when that time rolled around, she took up smoking again, and as she smoked and mused about death with real curiosity about the adventure she said “Soon I’ll know the answers to life’s great questions”. This level of engagement and wonder was her way, and it was a pleasure to know and be influenced by.

Images she leaves us with might be; silver cowboy boots, the green man, maidenhair ferns, viney follies, morning glories, a flint stone beach, a vw convertible beetle, stardust, ice cream, hand pruners, sleepy-time tea and a book, an excellent floral arrangement of whatever’s around, a red leather jacket, Artemis, a motorcycle, a grilled snapper, feet in the sand, matches.

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