Perhaps someone who knows Floyd or Cindy Nease better than I should be writing this piece. But here I am, to remind the Democratic Party and the lesbian and gay community that we need to rally round Floyd, our brother in grief.

It was Floyd Nease who, as House Democratic Majority Leader, rounded up the last 11 votes the House needed to override Jim Douglas’s ugly veto of the marriage equality bill in 2009, despite his private grief over the death of his mother on the morning of the vote. He has been a consummate Democrat of the kind we’d like to see many more in office.

And now, Floyd’s wife and companion of more than 40 years, Cindy, has died, last Wednesday, according to her obituary in Sunday’s Free Press, from “complications of 20 years of cancer treatment.” She was 62 years old and had been married to Floyd for 41 years.

The Neases came to Vermont two years before I did, and moved to Johnson. And Cindy dealt with two rounds of cancer. According to his “exit interview” in the Stowe Reporter, they would have been bankrupted but for the help of friends and neighbors.

His decision to run for the Legislature came after his wife struggled with cancer twice, and friends and neighbors rallied around the family, raising money to save them from the brink of bankruptcy.

Nease, then executive director of Laraway Youth and Family Services in Johnson, decided he could repay his community by serving in the Legislature.

I met Cindy a few times at Democratic Party events. She was a lively, engaged and engaging woman. I regret not coming to know her better.

Floyd decided to leave the legislature in 2011 and to decline a run for Lieutenant Governor at least in part to be more available to and spend more time with Cindy.

There will be an open house celebration of Cindy’s life from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in the dining hall of the Vermont Studio Center on Pearl Street in Johnson on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013. […] The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to Lamoille Home Health and Hospice, an organization that Cindy valued both as a member of its board and as a patient. Without their highly capable help, she could not have achieved her last wish, which was to die peacefully at home. To make a memorial donation, you may: write a check payable to Lamoille Home Health & Hospice and mail it, along with a memorial notation, to 54 Farr Ave., Morrisville, VT 05661, or donate online at: http://www.lhha.org/.

Our most heartfelt condolences go out to Floyd, their daughters and grandchildren, and to all those who were touched by Cindy’s life.