Sylvia Tuft - Free spirit traveled world on freighters
Dead, Not Forgotten is usually about the great accomplishments of little known people, but sometimes we have to honor the people who lived life with a spirit that made every day an adventure. Sylvia Marjorie Tuft, late of Denver Colorado, is such a person.
Sylvia Tuft developed a love for sailing as a child in New Jersey where she sailed with her father, a local fireman who helped authorities confiscate the boat from rum runners.
She met her husband-to-be, Harold Tuft, a physician, where she worked as a nurse after graduating from nursing school. When WWII broke out Sylvia cared for soldiers wounded in the war as Harold fought on the front lines in Europe.
At the war’s end Harold setup an Allergy practice and Sylvia worked alongside him. Eventually they moved the practice to Colorado where so many allergy patients went for the clear air. There they raised their family. From there Harold and Sylvia traveled extensively including a trip to Russia prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the traversing of the Panama Canal. Sylvia Tuft later traveled across Canada by train.
In her late 70’s, still filled with the spirit of adventure, Tuft started a trip around the world - by freighter! As she slow-boated herself around the seas she saw not only the backside of cities across the globe as she watched the coming and going of freight, but she also saw other sides of the sea such as when she used her nursing skills to care for a boat load of Vietnamese refugees plucked from the ocean.
Sylvia Tuft died August 8, 2007 at Brookdale Senior Living in Lakewood, CO. She was 95. True to her spirit her family will memorialize her atop of Vail Mountain and scatter her ashes from a sailboat in the Atlantic ocean.
Good luck on your next voyage, Sylvia!
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