Goodbye to Pink Dancing Shoes

An angel has become an angel with Tuesday's death of Nadine (Florang) Lyphout, 87, of Vinton.

I met Nadine in 1994 when she wore pink high heeled shoes to dance with Alzheimer's patients at the Lutheran Home in Vinton. I was so impressed with her ability to get those people up to dance that I called her an angel.

In a strange coincidence, my Monday column in The Gazette was about Nadine's sister-in-law, Pat Florang, whose home in northwest Cedar Rapids was destroyed by floods. Pat is a talented woman with a paint brush who lamented the fact artwork on her plaster walls would have to be destroyed in the rebuilding process. Her deceased husband, John "Jack" Florang, was Nadine's brother.

Here's the Ramblin' column I wrote about Nadine on Feb. 1, 1994, titled "Angel unlocks aged minds":

These people, victims of a disease that has robbed them of their memories, may not know what day it is, where they are, or what they have just done, but there remains a smile on their lips. For the

moment, there is no confusion. They are at peace with themselves and the world.