Obituary of Catherine Ann Habel

December 3, 1945 - September 20, 2021

Catherine A. Habel. Age 75 of Trenton.

Beloved Grandmother, Mother, Aunt, Sister, and Friend.

Family Tribute

The Harvest Moon reached peak illumination this past Monday, lingering high in the early morning sky framed by the arches of autumn clouds. They passed over the glowing orb intermittently, failing to dim the beacon’s magnificent and guiding light, a fitting welcome for my Mother’s ascending spirit.

She passed peacefully at my side, her hand in mine, exactly one month to the day from the emergency surgery and subsequent cancer diagnosis that upended our lives and gave us little, but precious time, to say our goodbyes.

“You and Me Against the World”, by Helen Reddy was the last song I played to her before she passed – a song she told me on many occasions was our song, a tribute to our unique relationship with one another absent my father or any siblings to share our experiences. True to the words, I felt her strength and protection to the very end, saw it in the tears that fell as she struggled to leave me, and the family who adored her, behind.

Catherine Ann Bollaert came into this world on December 3rd, 1945, just months after the end of WWII born to George and Margaret in the suburbs of Detroit. She attended St. Ignatius and Dominican schools and retained a love for the Catholic Church throughout her life. Her subsequent and successful career with Detroit Edison spanned 30 years and was a point of pride, as was her first home in Trenton, Michigan covered in the resplendent gardens she cultivated in the decade she lived there.

She was briefly a beautician, and I am told had as many hair colors as fiery personality traits. She left the profession unceremoniously to pursue a corporate life, disillusioned by her client’s inability to see her vision for their coifs. Given her innate eye for interior design – Martha Stewart got nuthin’ on Mom – I am sure she was quite right about their misguided choices for their own crowns of glory.

Mom could most often be found working in the gardens, skin tanned to a golden bronze, sunscreen be damned, impressively long and manicured nails filled with dirt, jamming to Elvis or Bob Seger, yanking wayward weeds, and cursing neighborhood squirrels. We are absolutely certain that upon her heavenly arrival, she blew past St. Peter, family members and perhaps the Lord Himself, chasing the smell of peanut butter and ‘nana sandwiches. Viva Las Kathie.

Her most noteworthy and constant attribution, however, was her dedication, her absolute and unwavering commitment to her family. Were it not for her faithful service to our success and stability, we would most definitely have drowned in the storms of autism, auto-immune disease, and general angst. When many of her peers were celebrating an empty nest and impending retirement, traveling and cultivating new hobbies, Mom was training as a para-professional to fill in the gaps with our Gracie, who is severely autistic. She was ever-present and never tired. Our joy was her joy, our pain was her pain, and our success, most definitely her success. 

At the end, before she lost her ability to speak, she let us know in no uncertain terms that she was leaving this world at peace, knowing that each of us – myself, my husband Brent, and her beloved grandchildren, Lauren, Grace, and Evan, were thriving following years of struggle and that her work here, in her words, was done.

Matthew 25:23 reads, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’.”

Surely, she is has entered into that abundant joy, and knowing Mom, has indeed been set in charge of much. We will always ache from her absence and look forward to the day we can join her, in the vast gardens of Heaven, amongst the blooms and butterflies, in the perfect peace of Christ Jesus, the family gone before us, and Elvis too.

Cremation will take place at The On-Site Crematory located within the Molnar Funeral Homes - Brownstown Chapel.