Alison Margaret Nangia

Alison was born in London, England at Hammersmith Hospital, the daughter of Dennis Morris and Anne Bishop. Alison spent her childhood in Ashford, Surrey, with her schooling at St. Michael R.C. Primary School and St. Theresa’s R.C. Secondary School. As a girl, Alison was an elite athlete, competing for several years as a gymnast, specifically Tumbling/Acrobatic Gymnastics (now an Olympic discipline), and competed as a member of Great Britain’s Gymnastics team. Alison attended Spelthorne College as a teenager, and while she first attempted studies of physics, she quickly found that maths was not her specialty. After graduating from College, she went into her next adventure and studied at King’s College London Nursing School from which she graduated as a Registered Nurse.

During her time working as a nurse, she worked on the general wards and eventually Coronary Care Unit at St. Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, England. That is where she met Ajay Nangia MBBS, medicine intern and her future husband, in 1990. Alison's journey then took her across The Pond, where she followed Ajay to the United States. She worked at Mount Sinai Hospital in the Medical Intensive Unit in Manhattan, New York City where she also earned her Critical Care RN certification. On February 21st, 1992, Alison and Ajay were engaged, with the proposal having occurred in the Windows of the World restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center.

Alison married Ajay on May 22, 1993 in Ashford, England, with the Indian celebration the next day. The couple moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Alison worked as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Room. Subsequently, she started doing clinical research and earned her Clinical Research Coordinator Certification. In 1998, their first child, Serena Nangia, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their second, third, and fourth children - Ellen, Sophia, and Cameron Nangia - were born in Eugene, Oregon in 2001. The family moved to the East Coast again to Hanover, New Hampshire, where they lived in the Upper Valley and Alison and Ajay worked at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

When her family moved to Leawood, Kansas in 2007, Alison was a homemaker for a number of years. She kept her nursing license for nearly a decade, with the hope that she might return to helping others heal, until she decided not to renew it in 2016. Alison and Ajay remained married, until Alison’s passing, for nearly 31 years of marriage.

In her 58 years of life, Alison experienced the gambit of what life can offer, from exceptional joy to immeasurable struggles. For the past twenty years, Alison grappled with a chronic illness, Cystic Fibrosis, in the way only a person with incredible strength, infinite resilience, and diagnosed serotonin syndrome can. In the early years of her illness, she left the hospital and immediately jumped back into life, driving her kids to school and activities, attending as many performances and games as she could, and occasionally going to Camden Woods Flamingo Nights where she would, inevitably, end up in the splits in the middle of a neighbor’s driveway. Alison was an extrovert with a capital E, as chatty as can be, and also loved to nap. She could and would talk for hours on the phone with her children, and when asked by her husband what she had discussed with them, it was impossible to say what; they were just chatting - about everything.

Alison enjoyed traveling, which she began as a child, and was lucky to visit many wonderful and historic places. While traveling, she enjoyed talking with strangers at the airport and telling stories. Some of Alison’s favorite stories were about Ooga-chaka the bear who lived near the family’s New Hampshire home, how she had triplets, and that her children believed brown cows were the source of chocolate milk because she had told them so in their childhood. When the family would visit England, the kids always wanted to go to the Fairy Forest, a story Alison had told them. Fairy Forests are roads overgrown above with leaves and branches. Little streams of light would come through and light up bits of debris so Mama told the kids that they were sparkling fairies. Above all, Mama never lost the magic. Till the end, she would still double-down on her belief that Santa was real.

Alison will be missed deeply, wholeheartedly, and without regret. In her final years of life, she spent her time on TikTok and YouTube becoming more versed in trends than her children, learning more about COVID-19 than the experts, connecting with Cystic Fibrosis influencers through comments and DMs, and going to lunch with her children and husband. She was an avid Pentatonix fan, in the know about all the group’s gossip and changes. She enjoyed any TV show on TLC, especially 90 Day Fiancé. Alison was a life-long reader and consequently embedded that love into her children.

Alison was preceded in death by her parents and uncle (George Gibson). She is survived by her husband Ajay Nangia, children Serena Nangia, Ellen Nangia, Sophia Nangia, and Cameron Nangia, brother John Morris, Aunt Delia Bishop, Parents-in-Law Premla and Anil Kumar, and two grand-cats Hagrid and Buddy.

A Memorial Celebration of Love will be held on April 27, 2024 at Java Garage in Kansas City, MO.