In Philadelphia, she worked in the admissions office at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a Civitan scholarship to Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, taught school for many years, then followed Rick through his career as a financial administrator at increasingly large universities. In high school, she went through a wild phase, which was muted by meeting Rick, the nice boy who would become her husband. Nancy grew up thinking she blamed her for her father's leaving. Young Nancy was often a lonely child her mother, who supported her three children as a secretary and with the income from a couple of rentals, was often tired and distracted. Whitfield would not learn the story of their breakup until years later, and she would not see her father again until she was 26 years old, and expecting her only daughter. Her parents, who married during World War II, divorced when she was little. Whitfield grew up poor in Clarksville, Tenn. "Broken Places" tells a story of success against the odds. The title comes from one of Whitfield's favorite quotes, from Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms": "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in the broken places." "It's only one chapter in my life," she said. Her Parkinson's diagnosis only shows up near the end of the book. Since moving to Ocean Isle in 2010 - when Rick became vice chancellor for business affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington - she's worked on her memoir, "Broken Places." Published this summer, the book is available from and the Barnes & Noble website. Whitfield, however, hasn't let the disease slow her down. "But it settles on different parts of the body," Whitfield said. Its most common symptom is a tremor in the hands. Before her doctor could give her the news, she thought, "Parkinson's disease."Ī disorder of the nervous system, Parkinson's affects the muscles' ability to move. Then, "all of a sudden, my legs wouldn't move," Whitfield said.īack home, she did a Google search of the symptoms. She loved dancing and couldn't wait to get out on the floor at the reception. Whitfield, who had a busy job at the time, thought little about it until a couple of months later when she and her husband, Rick, took off for a wedding in Florida. "First, I lost my sense of smell," said Nancy Whitfield, who now lives in Ocean Isle Beach. OCEAN ISLE BEACH - It all started eight years ago.
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