It is with profound sadness that we announce Jeanette Marie Plesha-Nolan left this world on August 8, 2026.

Affectionately known as “Nini” to her family and friends, Jeanette was born in East Chicago, Indiana to Joseph and Mary Plesha on April 5, 1944. She grew up in a large and loving Croatian family with seven brothers and two sisters.

As a child, Nini expressed interest in becoming either an attorney or a nun. Since philosophical discussions of secular law weren’t well-received in a convent, and courtroom dress codes made a nun’s habit impractical, she opted for a career in healthcare. This was the right decision.

After starting out as an X-ray technician in the 1960s, Nini became a sonographer in the 1970s just as ultrasound was becoming a crucial diagnostic tool. And she was incredibly good at it. Her patients loved her almost as much as she loved them. She pursued her career with vigor until she was physically unable to do so, then talked about how much she missed working with patients until the day she passed.

Nini’s professional competence and personal charm provided many opportunities to work abroad, and she embraced the global nomad lifestyle for many years. Among the personal effects she left behind are five old passports. None of them have any room for additional stamps. She lived in the Middle East throughout much of the ‘80s and early ‘90s, where she developed a deep affection for and kinship with the Bedouin people. Her journeys were always off the beaten path, and she had zero interest in tourist destinations or cliché vacation spots.

Along the way, Nini managed to get married, have a son, get divorced, find love again, laugh, argue, party, pray, protest, and champion the downtrodden. She hated injustice, bullies, intolerance, and stupidity on a cellular level. Nini was in the streets protesting for righteous causes well into her 80s.

She loved her family, friends, son, and daughter-in-law so very much. It’s crushing to face life without her, but she would laugh and tell us all to have a glass of wine and get over it. She was good like that.

Jeanette Marie Plesha-Nolan died at home, on her own terms, at peace, and unafraid. May we all be so fortunate.