At the conclusion of Wednesday’s celebration of life for late Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney, Jennifer Pagano walked past CU great Darian Hagan and gave him a long hug.

“He loved you so much,” Pagano told Hagan.

Pagano, more than many, knew who and what McCartney loved because she was by his side for the past eight years as his caregiver.

On Jan. 10, McCartney died at the age of 84 after a long battle with dementia. On Wednesday, friends, family and former players gathered to celebrate Coach Mac’s life at the CU Events Center.

Several members of the McCartney family spoke during the memorial and each of them got choked up when they thanked Pagano, affectionately known as “Peach,” the nickname her father gave her.

“I was overwhelmed,” she said of the outpouring of love for her at the memorial, “because I know it is a calling (to be a caregiver) and coach and I had such an amazing relationship.”

In fact, McCartney didn’t even let people get away with calling her “Peach.”

“Yeah, I mean, he was just a character every day,” Pagano said. “My nickname is Peach, but he would correct everybody and say, ‘No, it’s Pretty Peach.’”

Pretty Peach grew up in the legendary Pagano family. Her father, Sam, was the head coach at Fairview High School from 1969-94, leading the Knights to three state titles. Her brothers, Chuck and John, also grew up in Boulder and would go on to coaching careers in the NFL.

When Sam Pagano retired from Fairview, he was replaced by Tom McCartney, the son of Bill McCartney. Tom is still the Knights’ coach.

As football families, the Paganos and McCartneys had a bond, and Peach’s sons had played at Fairview for Tom. So, when Bill McCartney was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Tom reached out to Peach, who has been a caregiver for more than 20 years.

“When Tom called me to help with his dad, I was honored,” she said. “It was pretty special.”

She didn’t realize how special it would be, however. Nearly every day for eight years, she spent time taking care of Coach Mac.

“I was day to day,” she said. “He was at home for a long time and we had a great system and a great team of people around me that helped. (Mac’s daughter) Kristy lived at home, and we had a good routine. For the most part, it was good.”

About a year and a half ago, however, Coach Mac had a fall and broke his shoulder.

“Things just kind of changed from that,” Peach said.

Through it all, however, Peach stayed by his side and it was often her that the McCartneys would talk to in order to get updates on his health. The McCartneys showed gratitude for what Peach did for Coach Mac, but she got emotional talking about what Mac did for her.

“From the day I started, he just started teaching me Bible verses, and I would write everything down,” she said. “(To work) for them, it was an honor, and it was a privilege, honestly. Very humbling. I don’t like the spotlight, because it is God’s gift to take care of people, so I just feel that I’m gonna miss him, and you know, it was a long time.”

Peach said she was always impressed with how Coach Mac made others feel.

“He just had the ability to make you feel loved and honored, even through his disease,” she said. “Even when we would go places and meet people he knew, if he didn’t know them by name, he could reverse it and make them feel special. And that was the gift.

“Alzheimer’s can destroy families and the McCartneys were so strong and coach knew them until the very end. He didn’t get completely robbed (of his memory), so I look at that as a gift.”

For Peach, it was a gift to spend the past eight years with Coach Mac, but she’s also happy to know he’s now in an eternal home, reuniting with his late wife, Lyndi.

“You watch the suffering, and I’ve been doing this for so long,” she said. “I’ve been at end of life situations, and you just really don’t want that to happen any more for them. And it was a beautiful thing with coach, because he was going out on his terms. He was coaching his last game until the end, and it was an honor. It really was.

“But the gift of it is that he’s free. He’s free from that and he’s back. He doesn’t have to worry about that stuff anymore.”