Margaret Mary “Peg” (Long) Tocco left us this morning, July 6, 2018. She passed away in her home, surrounded by family. She was 67 years old. She is survived by Joseph S. Tocco, Sr. (Joe Tocco) her devoted husband of 46 years, who met her on a blind date at Ferris State College in 1969.
She has two sons; Joe Jr. and his wife Michele (Michele Tocco), of Downs, Ill. and Jim (Jim Tocco) and his wife Tiffany (Tiffany Tocco), of Mount Pleasant, S. Car. Joe Jr. and Michele gave her two grandsons: Joseph III (Sam), 10, and Oliver, 8. Peg’s four brothers, William, Thomas, Walter and John, also survive her. She was born on August 29, 1950, and raised in East Lansing, Mich. Her mother and eponym Margaret (Pallick) Long died when Peg was four years old. Her father, Walter Sr., died in 1984. The stepmother who raised her, Mary (Preston) Long, passed in 2004. After their 1971 marriage in East Lansing, Peg started life with her college sweetheart in Detroit. She bore her two boys and the family relocated to North Olmsted, Ohio in 1979. Peg and Joe moved to Dunlap, Ill. in 2003.
Diagnosed in 1982, she lived most of her life with a horrible, debilitating disease called Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, which took her ability to walk years ago and eventually took her life, but never took her spirit. She was a bright light to all who knew her. Her high spirit, optimism and pugnacious fight in the face of insurmountable odds were an inspiration to everyone. She took every avenue available to her, tried every treatment, and even performed her own research on how to ease her suffering from her MS. Even though she would not have wished it, in the end it is what she will be most remembered for. She triumphed for decades over adversity, until the adversary took everything. In the meantime, she was a second mother and important figure to many at North Olmsted High School and North Olmsted Middle School. She opened her home on Dawn Drive to many during those years for a safe and reliable place to gather. Very involved in education, she was an officer in the North Olmsted League for the Education of the Gifted (NOLEDG). She was a volunteer at Parkview Nursery School and Forest Elementary School, and she was involved as a Band Booster for the North Olmsted High School Marching Band. She earned a Medical Assistant degree and worked as an Opthalmic Technician for several years before her health forced her to work inside the home. Even after she was unable to do that, she still ran an inviting household and acted as a social hub for her friends and family. We, her family, thank her for her support and love — we never tried anything she didn’t support nor accomplished anything we didn’t owe to her in some way. We honor her for her courage — even in the end, she never failed to be the strongest person we have ever known. We try to emulate her smile, her positivity and her effervescent energy. For we know that all of the fighting, all of the struggle, it was all for us, all along. We will not forget. Her remains will be interred at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Lansing. There will be no funeral service. Visitation will be Monday, July 9, 2018 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Davison-Fulton Woolsey-Wilton Funeral Home in Peoria, IL.
