Mrs. Meredith Blickwede

Meredith Lloyd Blickwede, 93, was born January 21, 1922 in Detroit, Michigan, to Athol Shelton Lloyd and Lucile Aten Lloyd, and passed away peacefully on the morning of Tuesday, the 3rd of November 2015 at her home in Houston, Texas. She grew up in the Detroit area, and graduated from Wayne State University there. While at Wayne State, she met her future husband Don Blickwede when she was “volunteered” by a sorority sister to be the secretary for the campus engineering magazine, of which Don was editor. They were married on August 23, 1943 in the Martha-Mary Chapel in Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan, and made their first home – some rented rooms – on the upper floor of the home of Rev. George & Dot Willets in Caldwell, New Jersey. After World War II, Don & Meredith lived in many different places, including the Boston area, Washington, DC, Fairhope, Alabama, Green Valley, Arizona, The Woodlands and Houston, Texas-- and 35 years in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where Don worked for Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Some of her happiest childhood memories were of summers spent on her grandparents’ farm in southern Ohio, and she always felt a bit like a “Southern girl.”

Meredith loved the arts, and enjoyed involvement with them throughout her adult life, attending concerts, taking art classes and piano lessons, and taking architecture classes at Lehigh University. She designed some components of several homes she & Don built or remodeled, including an ingenious, expandable cupboard design for a kitchen, and after her classes at Lehigh, she started her own interior design business, MLB Consultants, doing some projects for several friends and acquaintances in the 70’s and 80’s. Their home was furnished in part with Early American furniture she found in the local areas, and often refinished herself. She always had classical music playing in their home, once a record player was acquired, and her children remember hearing it throughout their childhood. Often she would sing along with the soprano arias; a favorite was The Merry Widow. She also served as a volunteer for local art museums in Pennsylvania and Alabama.

She also loved languages, and could easily pick up words and phrases from a new language. She and Don traveled extensively, related to his job at Bethlehem Steel, and she especially enjoyed learning new phrases and experiencing the culture of the many foreign places they visited. One of the countries she held most dear was Japan, and she became an avid admirer of Japanese culture and design. In the 70’s she enjoyed spending summers at their cottage on Lac Tremblant, Quebec, either with Don or – when he was not on vacation – with their beloved German shepherd Traudi. She immersed herself in the Quebecois life so much that she would return home at the end of the summer with a French accent!

As a young mother in 1950, Meredith contracted polio, and spent several months in the hospital recovering and learning to walk again. She was determined to walk without a limp, and she never did, until post-polio syndrome in her 90s gave her a bit of a short step on one side. Throughout her life, she dealt with various health issues with courage and good cheer, never complaining. Some of her best friends nicknamed her “the Tigress” for her inner strength and will power. She always exercised, watched what she ate, and made sure to look her best.

Meredith was the quintessential homemaker, in the best sense of that term. Her college major was home economics, and she took it seriously. More than just cooking and cleaning, she organized their home, trying to find better ways to fix, make, clean and store things, and she was always busy cooking, planning a party, hemming drapes, re-arranging furniture, or in some other way improving her home. She was an excellent seamstress, making most of her and daughter Karen’s clothes; she made the wedding dresses for both her daughter and her former daughter-in-law. With Don’s executive position at Bethlehem Steel, she also hosted many parties and other social events, but she was not a social butterfly, nor the stereotypical “corporate wife,” preferring to do things on her own terms. Her parties were well-planned, with much thought going into inviting people who got along together, serving food they would enjoy, etc.

Meredith loved the ocean, and especially enjoyed vacations there and on the Great Lakes beaches. She never wanted to live too far from water. She loved nature and being outdoors– especially in autumn. Although she never hunted animals, she was part of her college riflery team, and earned the rank of Marksman. She had many friends from all over the world and the country, a great number of them with interesting backgrounds, and many different personalities; her closest friends tended to be down-to-earth, often bluntly honest people with kind hearts. She had a strong faith in Jesus Christ, which never seemed to waver, and which she endeavored to pass along to her family. She treasured her church membership and her friendships with the ministers and their wives, and other church members with whom she worked on volunteer projects.

She was predeceased by her beloved husband Don, her parents, her younger sister Barbara and brother-in-law Howard Zielke, “surrogate parents” Rev. George & Dot Willets, and many friends. She is survived by her daughter Karen Knowlton of Pocatello, Idaho, son Jon Blickwede of Houston, son-in-law Kim Knowlton, grandsons Jesús, Rafael and Jack Blickwede, granddaughter-in-law Maricela, dear caregivers Martha, Kimberly and Fatima, longtime best friend Eleanor Larsen of New Canaan, Connecticut and her daughters, and many other friends.

A memorial service celebrating her life is to be conducted at two o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, the 20th of November, in the chapel of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, 11612 Memorial Drive in Houston, where Rick Myers, Associate Pastor, is to officiate.

Immediately following the service, all are invited to greet the family during a reception at a venue to be announced during the service.

In lieu of customary remembrances, and for those desiring, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Meredith Lloyd Blickwede's name be directed to Living Water International, 4001 Greenbriar Drive, Stafford, TX 77477, www.water.cc