Norma Jean Nystrom
Norma Jean Nystrom
Norma Jean Nystrom of Murrells Inlet, SC, was called to heaven on March 9, 2025. She was born in Marion, Ohio on July 15, 1934, child of Goldie May and Elmer Robert Westphal. Norma graduated from Warren High School in Warren, Pa., and became a registered nurse graduating from W.C. A. School of Nursing in Jamestown , NY in 1955. Her nursing studies included training at Fordham University Hospital in New York City. She often shared stories of her early nursing days in NYC, and the friends that she made there enjoyed a special bond which lasted a lifetime. She was the loving wife of Eric Nystrom, Jr., who predeceased her. She and Eric (her husband of 46 years) married and settled in a home he constructed near Russell, Pa. where they raised their four children.
Norma enjoyed a nursing career in Warren working in the hospital setting, private healthcare practice, oral surgery, and as a psychiatric nurse for Warren State Hospital. She participated in various community activities there including the school PTA, serving as a Brownie Troop leader, and teaching vacation Bible school. Norma was also an active member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Warren, Pa. Upon retiring to South Carolina, she became a member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Pawleys Island.
A lover of humor and quick-witted jokes, Norma instilled a sense of fun and levity in those around her. She possessed a tremendous passion for games and seemed happiest when the entire family would participate in a friendly competition involving trivia, a board game, or word puzzle. Norma devoted much of her time to raising her children, and was the Kool-Aid mom to the neighborhood kids. She also had a very soft heart for animals and enjoyed their companionship. In her later years, she most loved spending time with her grandchildren, sharing her skills of baking and art, playing games, and cheering at their sporting events and concerts.
A nurse by trade and nurse at heart, Norma had the gift of mercy and was always taking care of other people. She was a devoted caretaker for her husband for many years, helped friends through cancer treatments, nursed sick children, and was always concerned with the well-being of her neighbors. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and friend who put others first. She will be greatly missed and will live on in the hearts of the family she so loved.
Norma is survived by her four children Eric J. Nystrom, Jeanne Nystrom Guest (Val), Gregg Nystrom and Heather Nystrom Johnson (John), her five grandchildren Ashley Nystrom Hamilton (Jon), Annamarie Guest Cromer (Justin), Mary Duval Guest, Noah Johnson, Caleb Johnson, and her great grandchild Harper James Hamilton; also by her cousin the Honorable Kaye Gorenflo Hearn (George), Kaye’s daughter Kathleen Wren Hearn (Lane) and her son James Marshall Jefferies, as well as nephews Jeff Gustafson (Debbie) and son Jason Gustafson, Michael Gustafson (Helen), Frederic J. Gorenflo, and Lon Gorenflo.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the following: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 5 Crooked Oak Dr, Pawleys Island, SC 29585 https://www.stpeterspawleys.org/give
All 4 Paws, 708 Petigru Dr, Pawleys Island, SC 29585 https://all4pawssc.org/donate/
American Red Cross, https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/.