Pensacola artist's 118 portraits capture her last days with the love of her life
Some of the best advice Pensacola artist Nina Fritz ever received about portrait painting was from an Austrian master painter. Don’t worry too much about the nose. You don’t even need to include the mouth if you don’t want to. But the eyes – the eyes are where you have “all the fun.”
Nina is widely known throughout Pensacola for a variety of paintings depicting Gulf Coast living, ranging from beachgoers to the U.S. Blue Angels, but portraits of people have always been her signature.
Which is why when her husband of 66 years, Norman "Norm" Fritz, was moved into Life Care Center of Pensacola in the memory care unit due to worsening dementia - painting the faces of residents and staff she encountered on her visits was for her, a way of coping, and for her subjects, a moment of glee.
Now, only weeks after Norm has passed, her 118 watercolor paintings depicting the people and place where she spent her last days with her husband were showcased in a special gallery Thursday night.
“You could tell a story by the paintings,” said Life Care Center Activities Director Muridia Washington, whose portrait features her in a Christmas sweater and red bow. “You can tell in their eyes.”
Over 60 years of Norm and Nina
While she isn’t sure exactly when she started seeing the signs of Norm’s dementia, it worsened over the past year to the point where he needed more permanent support and was brought to the Life Care Center of Pensacola. As his memory worsened, names were among the details to fade. But there was one name that never did.
“They (memory care residents) do forget who they are married to a lot of the time,” Washington said. “He knew his wife. He knew Nina and he always looked for Nina.”
Nina settled into the Life Care Center as her second home. The couple and their dog, Peanut, would snuggle into Norm’s twin-sized bed. When it was time to exercise, Peanut would take Norm’s place in the wheelchair as Norm and Nina rolled him through the hallways.
“She didn’t want the aids to change and bathe him,” Washington said of Nina opting to do it herself when she visited. “This is what a real love story is about.”
When Nina would spend her days with Norm, often arriving in the morning and leaving after their dinner, he would always tell her gently, “I’m supposed to be taking care of you.”
Norm was a U.S. Air Force veteran, who she married when she was only 21 and he was 24. But it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.
“I didn’t like him. I thought he was so fresh. Fresh and flirty,” she teased.
But then, in her first real conversation with him, everything changed.
“What I noticed about him first was his intelligence,” Nina said. “He knew a lot about a lot of things.”
Nina was the eighth of nine siblings in a big Italian family. She was the baby. Norm couldn’t drive her home, much less ask for her hand in marriage, without her family’s blessing first.
Still, he tried his luck asking him to marry him on their first date and move with him to Washington state where he was headed next for the military.
“My family said, ‘If he wants to marry you, he has to come to New Jersey (for the wedding,)’” Nina said.
They got married months later in the church and celebrated their reception on Nina’s family farm, and the next day, Norm presented his bride with their new home in Washington.
His career in the military took them all over the world, including a two-year stint in Japan where Nina’s fascination with painting truly began.
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In 1974, Norm’s schooling took them to Pensacola where they raised their five children.
“The kids were all small, we’d pile them up in the car and go to the beach on the weekends,” Nina said.
When it was just the two of them, they’d slip away somewhere outdoors where Nina could paint freely.
“I would paint, and people would say (to Norm,) ‘What do you do?’” Nina said. “He’d say, ‘Nina’s my hobby.’”
“It was never about Norman as far as Norman was concerned,” she added. “He was the most unselfish person.”
118 faces of Life Care
Before her Life Center paintings became a full series, they were little daily sparks of joy that spread like a wildfire throughout the center. When Norm would drift away into a nap, Nina would seek out a resident to sit for an hour for her to paint. As he watched her work from his room, he’d slip her a thumbs up, encouraging her to continue.
“I just thought coming everyday would keep him going,” Nina said.
Nina watched as residents would fix their hair while she pulled out their best features on paper in a simultaneously realistic and whimsical way in true Nina fashion. The excitement over who was getting their portrait done next was contagious.
“We had a list going,” Washington said. “It was something for them to look forward to.”
“For some of these people, this is their last stop,” said Life Care Executive Director Cody Brayton. “In our world, it’s important to reiterate the half-glass-full mentality. ... This whole experience has been such a blessing because it really brings people together.”
Once she worked her way through the residents, she moved onto painting staff who cared for her husband.
Nina’s favorite part was presenting people with the finished portrait, and the joy and amazement that would follow.
“I couldn’t wait to show them. It was so cute, they were so sweet,” Nina said of their reactions.
After Norm died of pneumonia last month, Nina realized her series had come to an end. But her impact will live on in Life Care and the people she painted will live on.
“It makes you feel good knowing a family member did this because of their love for the place and people,” Washington said. “There are still kind people in the world willing to do good deeds at no cost.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola artist Nina Fritz paints Life Care Center staff, residents
