Times journalist sought answers and action

By Stephanie Hayes, Times Staff Writer
In print: Thursday, May 15, 2008

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ST. PETERSBURG — Nancy Paradis once got an Internet provider to cough up a $69.63 refund. She told a reader to avoid potatoes sprouting eyes. She helped someone retrieve her dead mother's Social Security number.

She told readers where to call when their newspapers arrived late. As the St. Petersburg Times' Action columnist, she dug for answers with gleeful intrigue. She pounced to defend the little guy.

"It was her really being curious about things, and in the process she helped someone," said her friend, Margo Hammond. "She did that in her life. That was what she did. Always."

• • •

Ms. Paradis was born in Paris and grew up in Ethiopia, where her father was legal adviser to the government. The family had ostriches for pets. No television.

She went to school in Switzerland and Italy. She worked in a German dress shop. She once was arrested in a raid on Rome's Spanish Steps. She traveled across Asia in a Volkswagen bus and fell in love with Afghanistan.

"She was always an independent, free-spirited person who didn't buckle easily to authority," said her brother, Tim Paradis.

She came to America in the 1970s. She met her husband, truck driver Jim Plante, over CB radio in a rainstorm. Her handle was "Mellow Yellow."

In 1988, she joined the Times as an editorial assistant. She started writing Action in 1997.

Her mother and husband died of cancer the year before. It was devastating. She eventually found solace and belonging in the Catholic faith.

In 2005, she began behaving erratically, feeling weak and falling. Doctors diagnosed a fried egg-sized tumor on her brain called a glioblastoma. She dubbed it an "inconvenience" and said she was "so over hair."

She decided to do one thing: write an Action column.

On Friday, Dec. 9, my life was turned upside down by the discovery that I have a brain tumor. … I would first like to pass on what I have learned about facing a devastating diagnosis and being a health care consumer.

• • •

She told people to avoid misinformation on the Internet. She recommended bringing a tape recorder to doctor appointments.

She suggested laughter. She outlived expectations. She had five major operations. Before each, she watched the third Lord of the Rings movie. Her cancer was the enemy, her doctor the wizard.

Friends streamed into her hospice room. She cracked jokes and remembered birthdays. She swore the cancer taught her about life.

Ms. Paradis died Tuesday. She was 56.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8857