Obituary of Sandra L. Head

September 8, 1937 – December 28, 2021

Sandra Lee Head. Age 84 of Southgate.

Beloved wife of the late Robert Head.  Loving mother of Robert (Michele Deluge) Head, Andrea (Mark) Pawlowski and the late Scott Head.  Dearest grandmother of Shayne Anne (Robert) Stuck, Shiloh Head, Ian (Tina) Head, Robert Pawlowski and Olivia Pawlowski.  Great grandmother of Cooper, Riley, Dmitri and Mikah.  Dear sister of Lynn Porath, Dawn (Jack) Bartok, Rodney Higdon and the late Willard Higdon.  Sister-in-law of Marge Higdon.  Preceded in death by her parents Willard and Dolores Higdon.

Family Tribute

How do you write a tribute about an outstanding, selfless, woman, and capture the essence of someone’s being in a space limited to one or two paragraphs and make it not sound like an obituary? Stories. Remembrances. What we remember about people the most, especially after they are gone, is how they made us feel. There is no doubt that everyone that knew Sandy Head would say the exact same thing, loved. She had become an expert at it. Long before she had a family of her own, she was helping to care for all four of her younger brothers and sisters. Not much more than a child herself, she helped change Rod’s diapers, and get Dawn ready for the day, cleaned Jay’s face from one of the scraps he would get into, or take out one hair curler before bed so that Lynn would have something to curl her fingers around so she could fall asleep in the bed they shared.

Even after she married Bobby in 1958 and they bought their first and only house together on Castle two blocks away from the family house, she never stopped caring for the family, only now she started to add in a few of her own. The most joy in her life came from her kids Scott, Todd, and Andrea, and the greatest gift they gave her was all the grandkids and great-grandkids that she loved to love on any chance she could. Even if you weren’t one of her children or grandchildren she couldn’t love you any less. She had just as much love for her nieces and nephews and her friends. She never forgot birthdays or anniversaries, and would make it a point to have a card sent out on time or call you on your special day, and whether you knew it or not she was always praying for you. You didn’t have to ask she just always did it. Probably because she knew we always needed it, and because she loved each and every one of us in such a special way that she always wanted us to be remembered by God, as if God would forget, but if he did, Sandy would be there with her constant prayers to remind him. I don’t think many of us know anyone more devout, other than an actual person of the cloth, than Sandy. Saint Sandy as we like to call her. It was only recently that I found out she had thought about becoming a nun. Even though that never became her journey, she was dedicated to the church and daily services, and involved in the Blue Army and Rosary Altar Confraternity.

She also loved to travel. While her kids were young, the family would pack up the van and drive to dozens of places around the country, but when she got older and traveled abroad she always had a goal in mind, seeing the most holy lands. She traveled to the Holy City in Rome, Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, the Catholic half of Ireland - I’m sure she probably visited the protestant side as well but only seeing the Catholic side does sound like something she would do, and Lady of Fatima in Portugal. While 84 years sounds like a long time, when the time comes it doesn’t feel like it’s at all long enough. The comfort we can take is now knowing that she is taking care of us from above.

With the loving and devout way she lived her life, I can guarantee God fast-tracked her into the angel program upon arrival and she is shinning her light on us right now. And, when we all meet up again on the other side to get together for a Christmas morning gathering at her and Bobby’s house, which will no doubt be the same as the one she kept on Earth - spotless with a place for everything and everything in its place- don’t forget to “take your shoes off at the door.”