Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote:

            People are like stained glass windows--

           They sparkle and shine when the sun is out

            But when darkness sets in,

           Their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.

Those words couldn’t have described Margie better if Kubler-Ross had actually met her.  Through a lifetime of situations that would have burned out most of us, Margie’s light within burned brightly.  Perhaps not always in the most expected way, but unfailingly strong and determined, whether or not the world agreed with her or approved.

It is that strength that enabled her to leave everything she had ever known, travel weeks on an overcrowded ocean liner with a sick infant, navigate New York and the required immigration details still with a sick infant, and eventually travel across the country by train alone with that infant, to an area that had seen precious few immigrants and therefore had an unrealistic expectation of instant assimilation.  All of this in the mid-1940s, without the conveniences of communication and speed of travel we take for granted today.

She searched for the familiar in her new hometown, only to be literally laughed at when, on one of the first days, she announced that it was time for afternoon tea.  Those farmers hanging out at Beck’s Station weren’t quite ready for that! Undaunted, she next tried the American custom of baking, (possibly for another go at afternoon tea!) and produced a batch of chocolate chip cookies that turned out needing to be served as a very large stack of crumbs on a large plate, and which produced the same reaction from the crowd at the station.  No fault of hers, and was probably due to the difference between the Metric System of measuring she was familiar with and the Imperial/US Standard System that the recipe used.  But she kept trying and kept going--then, and for the rest of her life. 

There were times when the light of her strength didn’t exactly conform, but through the years it was always there—nobody could ever say that Margie was weak or a quitter.

She was also quick to make known that she didn’t like to be known as “Margie.” However, this much more casual, playful form of her name seems to be a perfect fit  for the person we remember—strong-willed, opinionated, outspoken, adventurous, fun to tease and lover of all things that sparkled.  And yes, like all of us, she could also be described at times as obstinate, self-centered or maybe even detached.  But each of those preceding adjectives is a part of what Kubler-Ross would call Margie’s “sparkle and shine.”   That sparkle and shine remains a part of us and resides in our treasured memories.  We will miss you, Margie! 

                                                                                                           Rachael Lou & Mike