Obituary of Marie Niebrzydowski

May 25, 1928 - September 30, 2017

Marie Niebrzydowski. Age 89. Of Southgate

Beloved wife of the late Chester Niebrzydowski.  Dearest mother of Richard (Chari) Niebrzydowski, Daniel (Lisa) Niebrzydowski, Sharon (Bruce) Cislo and the late Dennis Niebrzydowski.  Loving grandmother of 9 and great-grandmother of 16.  Dear sister of Dorothy Williams and the late Betty Fry.

FAMILY TRIBUTE

Marie Niebrzydowski  was born in Clinton Kentucky as Jessie Marie Higginbottom on May 25th, 1928.  Named after her father Jessie, she spent a life time correcting people that her name was actually Marie.  She and her sisters Dorothy and Betty lived in the south until father Jessie moved the young family north, to Wyandotte Michigan, where he found work at Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse.  

Marie attended Roosevelt High school in Wyandotte, and during her senior year worked at a local drug store, Cahalan Drugs as a cashier where she met her future husband Chester.  After Chester served in the army during World War II, Marie and Chester were married in the rectory of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Melvindale on March 15th, 1947.  They would be married well past their 50th golden anniversary until Chester’s passing in 2001.

Marie was a homemaker as she raised her children, involved with her children’s early activities at school as a room mother.  She always encouraged her children to do well in school, and made sure there was always a home-cooked dinner on the table at 2:45, in time for Chet to eat before leaving for his afternoon shift at “the mill”.  Chester always had a side job to work, so most of the home coordination activities fell on her, but she did manage to play bingo after the kids were old enough to be alone.  Christmas Eve was her holiday to host the family, and there are many fond memories of Christmas gatherings with the extended family. One of her hobbies was reading short stories, and also spending time shopping and talking to her best friend Verna Bye or one of her sisters Dorothy and Betty.   Marie met Vern Bye after moving to Rockwood, and they remained friends after moving to Southgate, where the kids attended elementary, junior high and then graduating high school from.  

Her favorite vacation destination when the kids were young was to travel south in the summertime to visit relative’s farms in Kentucky and Tennessee where most of her family, the Higginbottom’s and Rushing’s lived.  Although she wasn’t as much in love with northern Michigan, she supported her husband in his love to visit “up north” every summer when the kids were older.  She eventually moved up there with Chester after his retirement until his health made it necessary to move back to the downriver area,  where they settled into a condo on Grosse Isle.  For the last ten years of Chester’s life, she was a loving care-giver and made it possible for Chester to live at home until the end of his life.

Marie had seven grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.  She was a very loving and generous mother and grandmother, never missing a birthday card, present, or an opportunity to say “I love you”.  Even if she couldn’t get out to purchase a card or a gift herself, she made sure someone was able to help her out, asking to have it picked up for her.  She always insisted on reimbursing the cost regardless of how inexpensive the purchase was.  Her hobby was shopping, especially at QVC, where her closet was usually full of items either saved for Christmas or a birthday, or staged for the post office to be returned. It wasn’t uncommon to just be given a gift she had purchased for no reason at all. Marie loved her son and daughter’s in law as her own children and had great relationships with them all.  

In her later years, she loved visits from whoever might visit and was grateful for her daughter’s care-taking in her later years.  She enjoyed daily phone calls from her children and she always knew what was going on in the lives of her family.  She was proud of every accomplishment of her children and grand children and her greatest legacy is her love for her family.  She will be remembered most for the deep love for her family, and unconditionally supporting them in all they chose to do.  She would have us all remember to “Be Careful” in everything we do, as after the words “I love you,” that’s how she ended every good-bye.