Nancy Dedrick wears her favorite apron in the kitchen of her Newcastle home on Dec. 26. Dedrick, who was born and raised in Newcastle, has spent the last 40 years making baked goods for local businesses and friends. “I love making people happy,” she said. “It’s what you give in life, not what you get back.” (Piper Pavelich photo)
Kindness and generosity are some of the cornerstones of Nancy Dedrick’s life, which she has devoted to her family, friends, and the community.
Dedrick, who was born and raised in Newcastle, has always known she would stay in Maine, as nowhere else truly feels like home. She has spent the latter half of her life spreading smiles throughout the county, baking homemade treats for local businesses and friends for the last 40 years.
“I love making people happy,” she said. “It’s what you give in life, not what you get back; but you get back a lot when you don’t expect it.”
Dedrick attended Franklin School on Mills Road in Newcastle, now the Franklin School Apartments. She said her childhood was “very relaxed” and consisted of many games of hide-and-seek and kick the can played with neighborhood children.
“When I grew up, Newcastle had 200 people,” she said. “We kids would all get together; we’d go back in the woods and play, we just hung around … We just all got along.”
Dedrick said she always had a love for wildlife, often feeding raccoons, deer, and other animals outside her house. She grew up with a pet snake, as well as dogs, cats, and horses.
“My father worked in a lumber mill, and when he used to go clean the stalls, he used to take (a horse) … Put me on, turn him loose. I’ve always been around horses,” she said.
Dedrick’s involvement in the community and her love for horses started at a young age. She joined a 4-H group in elementary school and began participating in horse shows in the area with the Tri-County Horsemen, a Union group established in 1960 with the intent to encourage and promote equestrian activities. She was named the organization’s queen in 1963 and went on to represent the Tri-County Horsemen in that year’s Lobster Festival parade in Rockland.
Following her days riding in shows, she was a judge for two years with the Maine Horse Association, which has aimed to encourage horseback riding in the state since 1932.
After graduating from Lincoln Academy in 1964, Dedrick was on track to pursue nursing in Portland, where she worked as a nurse’s aide at MaineHealth’s Maine Medical Center for about a year.
“I wanted to know if I wanted to become a nurse. I’m not going to invest four years or two years and find out I didn’t want to do it, so I said that I’m just going to go up there and work,” she said.
However, a chance meeting led her down a different life path. Dedrick met her husband, Paul Dedrick, in Portland in 1964. He was in the U.S. Coast Guard at the time.
Nancy Dedrick said she and Paul only went out on a date because a friend of hers was going on a date with a friend of his.
“We only went out with a stipulation because (our friends) wanted us to go out,” she said. “They broke up, we got married.”
After marrying in 1965, the couple had two sons, Daniel and Dennis. When her children were born, Dedrick said she decided to stop horseback riding, as she couldn’t devote much time to it anymore.
“You can’t give all the attention that both needs,” she said.
Motherhood was Dedrick’s passion for a long time, she said, and it’s a life she wouldn’t have traded for anything else. She recalled how they would often do things as a family, including learning to ski together.
Once Dedrick’s children grew up, she found herself having more and more time on her hands. She began doing odd jobs here and there, eventually making her way to Renys, where she worked for roughly 30 years.
“They asked me to help with Early Bird and then I just kept helping,” she said. “I’ve never applied for a job, except for Maine Medical (Center). I just know the wrong people.”
While she kept going back day after day, Dedrick said she didn’t quite grasp the concept that it was a job, as her main priority continued to be getting home in time to have dinner on the table for her family. Dedrick said she would go to work after her husband left for work in the morning; she would be home by 3 p.m., and Paul made it home at 4 p.m. each day.
Dedrick said she started baking for people outside her home when her children got to high school and while Paul worked at Bath Iron Works. He and his coworker requested treats such as doughnuts and cookies, and word spread from there.
Since then, she has been making sweets for dozens of Lincoln County businesses over the years, including Sweetz & More in Wiscasset; Cove’s Edge, Cottage in the Woods, and Don Foshay’s Discount Tire & Alignment in Damariscotta; and Mexicali Blues, Water of Life Church, and The Lincoln County News in Newcastle.
“I just love doing it … It’s just, it’s my hobby,” she said. “I have people give me stuff; they give me flour, they give me sugar, and … The smile on their face,” she said.
Dedrick’s repertoire of baked goods includes M&M’s cookies, potato chip chocolate chip cookies, cakes, brownies, and whoopie pies, which are the most popular, she said. Despite their popularity and the fact she has made hundreds of sweets over the years, Dedrick has never had a whoopie pie, she said.
Shelves throughout her home are lined with cookbooks, either store bought or handmade using recipes she found online that she wants to try someday. When she’s not baking, Dedrick said she likes to look for new recipes.
“I just enjoy doing it. It’s my outlet,” she said.
Dedrick said in a given month, she makes about 2,000 cookies, 250 doughnuts, four cakes, and three pans of brownies in the kitchen she and Paul dubbed “The P & N Diner.”
“We can do 80 cookies in 44 minutes,” she said.
Dedrick spends Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays in the kitchen, and Sundays, Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays delivering goodies.
Whether she’s in the kitchen baking her well-known goodies or out in the community cracking a joke, Dedrick said she strives to put a smile on people’s faces. At almost 80 years old, Dedrick said the most important lesson she’s learned in life is to be kind.
“My pastor says, ‘Nancy’s the only person who goes into Hannaford and comes out knowing somebody’s history,’” she said.
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