Seemingly countless South Utah County community members are mourning the loss of one of their own.
On Christmas Eve, Marcee Nelson, 32, of Genola, lost her year-long battle with cervical cancer, leaving behind a husband, four kids, and many more family members and friends.
Marcee was the assistant produce manager at Payson Market and had recently added the title of first responder for Payson and Santaquin EMT/Fire crews.
“She was just the most giving person I’ve ever met,” friend and Payson Market colleague Tina Holman told Serve Daily. “If she could help you do anything around your house or help fix your car, she would try and do it. She just went out of her way to help people. I mean, she went and got all her EMT training done and she was working at Payson Market and Santaquin Fire — and she had four children and would still say, ‘What do you need help with?’
“She was just one of those people that you meet and there’s just something about her that you just know she’s special,” Holman continued. “And her smile. Everybody talks about a $1 million smile and she could just light up her room. Just being around her and feeling her joy was just kind of indescribable.
Holmon worked side-by-side with Marcee in the produce department at Payson Market and said that Marcee would often talk about her many “families.”
“She loved being a firefighter and being with the ambulance crew,” Holman said. “She just beamed when she talked about her first responder family. .. And she was that way with her family and her friends. She loved her family. She talked about how much she loved her kids. She just made me want to be a better person. I wanted to be better because of her.”
Santaquin Fire/EMS wrote about the loss of Marcee on a Facebook post, describing a “sisterhood” that was felt.
“Have you heard about the brotherhood within the fire service?” the post read. “It’s a bond forged between firefighters in horrific moments and daily crises. What you may not know is that there is a bond even stronger. It’s the sisterhood.
“In a male-dominated profession, women in emergency services lean on one another to survive and to serve. … “In our line of work, we know — at least intellectually — that none of us are immortal. We like to believe we are, until mortality hits you upside the head like it did this week. On Christmas Eve, no less. One of our sisters lost her hard-fought battle with cancer at just 32 years old.
“Marcee Nelson was a stellar human. The stellar-est. Always smiling. Always looking for ways to love and serve others. Even from her hospital bed, in the midst of intense pain, she was still asking what she could do for us.
“The world is darker without her beautiful, beating heart in it.”
‘Right ‘till the end, she was that same beautiful sparkling person, but she was when I first met her’
— Tina Holman
Nobody knows how Marcee was able to balance work and family, more than her husband of 14 years, Jake Nelson. The two met in 2008 when Marcee lived in Genola and he lived in Lakeshore. Jake echoed Holman’s words, saying that his wife was “always putting other’s needs before her own.”
“She had a great smile that drew people in,” Jake told Serve Daily. “She was one of those people who others wanted to be around, and she liked being around other people, too. Watching her go through what she did last year was really hard.”
Jake explained that in October of 2024, Marcee was diagnosed with cervical cancer. He said that upon diagnosis, she was determined to get through it, and even as her condition worsened, she continued to have a positive outlook.
“It was difficult,” he said. “She was super sick and very uncomfortable, but she was super strong. I don’t think that if I wouldn’t have been pretty open and frank with the kids, that they would have even understood the gravity of the situation. She was so strong and just put a smile on for the kids, and she would just be OK most all of the time. It did start knocking her down with the later chemos.”
Holman also said that watching her friend lose her battle was hard, adding that even at the very end, Marcee never stopped showing others how much she cared for them.
“At first, we were like, ‘We’re gonna be this! We’ve got this!’ And (Marcee) went in with it, and was so positive,” Holman recalled. “As it went on and the chemo got worse and they were trying more stuff, it was a hard thing to watch your friend go through.That was heartbreaking.
“From someone who could leg wrestle and whoop any man, she just lost all her strength– but she still had that kindness in her heart. Even on her deathbed, she sent the girls and I at work a group Christmas present. And on the day she passed, we got her gift that was sent by Amazon. … Right ‘till the end, she was that same beautiful sparkling person, but she was when I first met her.”
‘She wanted to stay’
Jake said that one of the hardest things was watching his wife let go of a life that she built and wanted to be a part of.
“She really wanted to be helpful, and of use,” Jake said. “She really wanted to stay. That’s one thing that she had a really hard time with. She really wanted to stay. I imagine because she wanted to continue what she was doing which was serving her family and community.
“I loved her. So many of us loved her. She was wonderful to be around. She was pleasant, and she will be terribly missed. I miss her terribly already and I’m sure there’s more to come. I’m grateful that she’s not hurting like she was. Watching her suffer that last month was pretty hellish and I’m glad she doesn’t have to go through that anymore. I sure wish that she would have been able to get what she wanted and be able to stay.”
“She’s a hard person to lose because there’s no way you can replace her,” Homan said.
