Constance Nurge, longtime North Merrick resident, dies of coronavirus

Constance "Connie" Nurge, a longtime North Merrick resident, died of coronavirus on Easter Sunday, April 12. She was 87. 

Nurge was born in New Jersey in  1933 and moved to New York in the early 1940s. She attended Roslyn High School, graduated from SUNY Farmingdale, and pursued a career in mechanical drawing at Airborne Instruments in Mineola, where she met her husband, Ernest II.

Life in North Merrick

The couple wed in 1954 and moved to North Merrick shortly after, where they lived for the past 65 years. Together, they raised three children — Ernest III, Eric and Kimberley — who attended the local schools and graduated from Calhoun High School. As a homemaker, Nurge enjoyed antiquing, decorating and painting, but, more than anything, she cherished spending time with her family, Kimberley said. 

Kimberley shared with the Herald Life a story that "exemplifies" who her mother was.  In the late 1950s, one of Nurge's neighbors was pregnant, but the family didn't have much, she said. So, Nurge traveled around the neighborhood with an empty dresser to collect used baby clothes from the other neighbors — she gave the family the dresser full of clothes before the child was born. 

She was an active member of the PTA, and "was the first to volunteer for school trips or babysit neighbors' kids to give them a break," Kimberley said. “Anybody who met my mom, they loved her."

Staying strong through illness

Nurge was a breast cancer survivor. In the early 90s, doctors discovered a lump in one of her breasts shortly before her son, Eric's, wedding, but she didn't tell her family until afterwards as to not spoil the occasion. 

"No matter what she faced, she was such a soldier," Kimberley said. "She was always pleasant with all the nurses and the doctors, and she was never ornery — she never showed fear."

This temperament continued when Nurge faced a series of other ailments. Over the past 10 years she had suffered and survived blood clots in her lungs, a stroke, pneumonia and sepsis —  twice. 

"Every single time she was in the hospital, she never cried a tear," Kimberley said. "She always gave a brave face."

Coronavirus takes hold

Since the blood clots had compromised her lungs, Nurge was on oxygen full-time and had nurse aides who visited her at home. Kimberley said she was concerned about having the aides around as the coronavirus took more lives, so at the end of March she returned to her childhood home to be with her parents. Around that time, Nurge's symptoms began.

The fevers made Nurge "delusional," Kimberley said, so she would ask her mother if she could remember who somebody was after pointing them out to her. When Kimberley pointed to Ernest II and asked Nurge who he was, Nurge said, "That's my love."

"We would do nebulizer treatments every four hours, but her oxygen levels were still scary low," Kimberley said, "so we had no choice but to call an ambulance." 

Nurge was admitted to the hospital on April 8 and died four days later on Easter Sunday. Her family was able to say goodbye using one of the nurse's phones. 

"I just kept thanking her and telling her I loved her," Kimberley recalled. "I  couldn’t believe the strength that she showed. We're grateful we had her for 87 years, but it doesn’t make it easier — Covid shouldn’t have taken her."