Irene Molnar

IIt is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our loving mother, Irene.We are grateful to God that He allowed us to have her for as long as He did. She lived a long fruitful life and will be remembered for her values and her character and faith and trust in the Lord and her unconditional love of her children. She was a wonderful role model to her three children and she was calm and serene in her Lutheran faith. She had a natural beauty that never faded with time, always pleasant and smiling. She was always fastidious about her appearance and impeccably dressed. We will miss her in our lives along with her sweet gentle voice. She loved being a homemaker and also worked outside the home to help support the family. She loved to cook and bake everything homemade for her family and often entertained relatives and friends. She often scarified her needs for the betterment of her children. She had a love of singing. She told me once that when she walked through the woods on her way to work in her native Slovakia she would sing and the birds would sing back to her. She sang to us as children and I remember her singing when she was cleaning the house. She was first Soprano in the choir at the Slovak Lutheran Church in Detroit were we grew up. Irene Molnar was born Irene Kruzic in Lucenec, Slovkia Her parents were Zsuzsanna and Frantisek (Ferenc) Kruzic. She had two older sisters Pauline Banik, and Mary Ochtinsky and three half-brothers Max, Martin and Ferko Kruzic. Her father was widowed twice before he married her mother. When she was a young girl living at her parents house young men would come and serenade her under her window at night. It made the other village girls very jealous. Young men from the seven villages away heard of her beauty and wanted to court her. Living conditions were very difficult during that time. First the oldest sister and then then the older sister went to America and got married and then eventually her mother went after she was widowed. She was left by herself and she had no choice, but to go into service to a wealthy family near the Slovak-Hungarian border. It was the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, our future father was a policemen tasked with protecting the open market place from potential theft. .One day Irene was sent to the market place to shop for food for the household. When our father saw her and how beautiful she was he spoke to her and she rebuffed him and said she didnt know Hungarian. She was a proud Slovakian and never imagined she would ever marry a Hungarian, because they were considered occupiers of their land. But he persisted and he watched where she lived and he left a letter for her at the gate inviting her to see a movie and go for walks. When she saw that he was a nice, handsome and impeccably, dressed; and with positive encouragement from others she relented and accepted his invitation and thus began a three year courtship. When they decided to get married, though, they couldnt find a religious figure to marry them. A Hungarian minister didnt want to marry them, because she was Slovak. A Slovak pastor wouldnt marry them because he was Hungarian. Our father then said he knew someone that could marry them. They welcomed their first child a boy in July 1944whom they named Peter Jr. after his dad. Six years later they had another boy and a girl 20 months later. That completed the family. Our mother always had a deep desire to come to America to be reunited with her sisters and give her children a better life in a country that allowed religious freedom. After the war because of the communist domination, religion was discouraged and frowned upon by the party leaders. Food was scarce with long food lines. If you grew any food and raised animals a portion would have to be given in to the state. When the Soviet invasion of Hungary happened in 1956 people were leaving in droves. Our mom had a hard time convincing our dad to leave also. Finally he relented, but with a caveat that she would be blamed if anything happened. She had faith that God would be with us and protect us. With assistance from drivers we managed to make it the Austrian border and walked across in broad daylight with no interference. Normally there are guards there, but there werent any when we arrived. God made sure we could safely walk across. Our moms faith served us well. Unfortunately, when it became to our turn, to apply for refugee status in America the quota for Hungarian refuges was closed. So we applied to our second choice, which was Canada where were accepted. Two years later we were allowed entrance into American from Canada and the family became Naturalized Citizen of the U.S. in August, 1966. Growing up in Detroit things were lean, but we were never homeless or went hungry or felt deprived It was very difficult for several years but our parents soldiered on our dad working two jobs to support the family and our mom worked several part time jobs during the week. Things got easier after our dad found employment in the sanitation department at Fisher Body at age 55. Thats when our parents were able to buy a home in Roseville where our mom lived until her death. We as children did our best to take care of her in her widowhood. . We cannot imagine our world without her now, but we look forwarded to being reunited with her in Gods everlasting Kingdom. Visitation for Irene will be Friday, September 27, 2019, 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm at the A.H. Peters Funeral Home, 32000 Schoenherr Road, Warren. She will lie instate on Saturday, September 28, 2019, at 10:00 am until the time of service 11:00am at Christ Lutheran Church, 32300 Schoenherr, Warren. Interment Cadillac Memorial Gardens East Cemetery, Clinton Township.

Funeral Home:

A.H. Peters Funeral Home of Warren

32000 Schoenherr Road,

Warren, MI

US 48088