They loved Disney, Nancy and Jorge Salinas. Nancy was “a Disney fanatic,” in her son Matthew’s words, especially for Cinderella. She loved collecting and trading pins, she loved collecting (and making) art, she loved to dance, her inhibitions gone as long as she was at Disney.
“Despite being shy in everyday scenarios,” daughter Kaylin Salinas said, “at Disney she was often the first to go out and dance dressed in head to toe in Disney attire.” It’s what made her happy. It’s how she lived life, by the simple credo that as long as you weren’t hurting anyone, you should enjoy life fully, whatever you enjoy doing.”
“She always tried to get Dad to dance, but he refused,” Kaylin said. Stoic, affable, reserved Jorge, 59, whose smiles mirrored others’ joy: “Instead, he recorded endless videos of her dancing in parades or up on stage, sending them proudly in our group chat, and those videos now capture her spirit and joy forever.” Nancy was 60.
They were at Disney that October 4 barely a week ago, spending the day as they loved to spend it, and they were there in their last hours. There and on I-4, returning from the sort of day trip so many of their friends and neighbors in Flagler County are familiar with, after closing time at the parks–after the fireworks, after the waves from the staff (well, the cast members), after the long trek to the car and the hundred miles back to Palm Coast.
Not long before reaching the I-95 interchange, near the exit for Deltona and DeBary, a still-unknown reckless driver–a road goon, a punk, a criminal–cut off another driver, sending her car careening against the guardrail and bouncing back against a motorcyclist and Jorge’s and Nancy’s car, killing all three. What pictures and videos Nancy and Jorge would have taken that day would be like their epitaph: if Jorge could’ve embedded them on his wife’s tombstone, he’d have done it, because “if she dreamed it, he would build it,” his son said.
“There is some sweetness in knowing that they passed after enjoying time together at Disney, and that they were together when they passed,” his sister told the audience of some 150 people who’d turned up for the celebration of life for Nancy and Jorge Salinas Sunday afternoon at the Palm Coast Community Center. They had inherited their father’s stoicism and their mother’s cheer, these children, the brutality of their loss either still buffered by the shock or softened by that something intangible they carried from their parents and that they would never lose.
“I take comfort in knowing that they didn’t have to say Goodbye. They just went on their next adventure together, just like they always wanted to, together,” Kaylin said.
For fifteen minutes a piano-accompanied slide show of a lifetime of moments illustrated in colors and otherworldly scenes–in wedding pictures and unrecognizable heads of hair (Jorge’s!) and mustaches, in Air Force days and Christmases with the kids, with parents, with co-workers, with local officials–the variety of lives and the warmth of those lives the couple had lived, so that when Matthew said he would still “like to picture them now, still looking up, still together on the beach, watching the rocket trails grow,” the way they did every rocket launch they could catch, it didn’t sound like a fantasy.
But nor was the grief of the occasion, especially when Heidi Petito, the county administrator and the person closest to Jorge in his professional life–a closeness that grew into friendship– struggled to speak a few words in front of everyone.
“I often tell people that Jorge and I once competed for the same job,” Petito said, referring to the top executive job at the county in 2020. “He ultimately had received the offer, only to turn around and support me when I took on that job. That was who he was. He was always more interested in lifting others up, than claiming the spotlight for himself. Jorge believed in teamwork, in mentorship and in doing what was right, not what was easy. He brought a remarkable combination of discipline, compassion and humility to his work.” The words humility, integrity and love recurred.
It was a simple, austere celebration. The Sheriff’s Office had positioned two deputies at the entrance to the Sunshine Room in downcast stillness, though music from Salinas’s native Puerto Rico kept the funeral gloom at bay, as would Andy Dance, the chair of the commission, who emceed the occasion with just the right blend of temperance, reverence and solace.
“I’m just glad that we have the room filled today. It does the heart good to see so many people here to celebrate Jorge and Nancy,” Dance said at the outset. “Today is for us to recognize the contributions and celebrate the extraordinary lives that they lived, lives filled with love, faith and selfless service to others.”
The ceremony was bracketed by invocations by Alvin Jackson, Bunnell’s city manager and a pastor and an opening quote from Nancy’s favorite prayer, from Psalm 23–“The Lord is my shepherd/I have all that I need./ He lets me rest in green meadows./ He leads me beside peaceful streams…”
Other than the couple’s adult children, Jorge’s parents, Jorge and Ana Salinas, were present, as was Nancy’s mother, Eva Hernandez. “Your family’s strength and grace inspire us,” Dance said. (Every member of the Flagler County Commission and many members of the administration were present, as was Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson an Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin and former Commissioner Jane Mealy, and Clerk of Court Tom Bexley. Dave Sullivan, the former county commissioner and current Palm Coast City Council member, represented the city.)
“Today is a day of gratitude. Gratitude for Jorge’s leadership, Nancy’s kindness and the legacy of service and love that they leave behind,” he said, before summarizing Jorge’s long, steady and dexterous service for the county. “As scripture reminds us in Philippians, 1:3 says, ‘I thank my God every time I remember you,’ and that’s exactly what we do today. We give thanks for the memories, for the laughter and for the light Jorge and Nancy brought into our lives.”
Additional services are scheduled this week for Nancy and Jorge Salinas: The viewing is scheduled for 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday (Oct. 15) at Clymer Funeral Home at 39 Old Kings Road in Palm Coast. A visitation and mass is scheduled for noon on Thursday (Oct. 16) at Santa Maria Del Mar Catholic Church on North Central Avenue in Flagler Beach. A military funeral will take place at 10:30 a.m. Friday (Oct. 17) at Jacksonville National Cemetery, 4083 Lannie Road, north of the city.
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