Cecelia "Sally" Tencza

Sally was the beloved mother of Nancy (The late Ernest) Bock, and Lorraine (her husband Michael) Samarziya; Loving Granny of Ernie (his wife Nanci) Bock, Patrick (his wife Michelle) Bock, Jeannie Croket, and Lisa (her husband Aaron) Lehr. Proud great-granny of Jacob Croket, Charlize Lehr, Briana Bock, Zachary Bock, Andrew Bock, Alexander Bock, Isabella Bock, Crystal Bock and Liliana Halyckyj.

Sally was a long time member of St. John Bosco Catholic Church. Every Sunday she sat in the back pew by the candles. Sally retired after a 33 year career in the factory to start a second career that lasted another 20 years as a sandwich maker at Subway. She retired from Subway at age 90. Sally loved to keep busy up until her last days. She loved her car and was still driving herself to the store to grocery shop. She was very active and independent. She knew all of the neighbors because she walked every day and enjoyed talking with everyone on the way. Sally also enjoyed working in her garden pulling weeds and tending to her flowers. She loved to dance polkas and Sally was famous for her pierogis. She would make about 500 at a time to give out and they never went to waste. In her "relax time" she really enjoyed watching her soap operas, game shows and her cuckoo clock. Sally collected animated stuffed animals and used precious family photos to "wall paper" her walls with. Sally was a chocoholic and always had a jar of peanut M&M's by the door. Her family thinks she will be most remembered for her love of conversation. She spoke with tenacity and spoke often. There was no such thing as a quick chat when it came to talking with Sally. Of all her enjoyments in life, her passion was her family. Sally loved being a mom, granny, and great-granny. Her "wallpaper" proved that. She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her.

Sally's family will receive friends on Thursday, July 26, 2018 beginning at 10:00 AM for a final goodbye at St. John XXIII Catholic Church, 12170 Beech Daly, Redford Township, Michigan 48239. Her life will be celebrated with a funeral Mass led by Father Gregory Piatt to begin at 11:00am. She will be laid to rest with Committal Prayers in St. Hedwig Catholic Cemetery, Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

Contributions in Cecelia's memory may be made to St. John XXIII Catholic Church, 12170 Beech Daly, Redford Township, Michigan 48239, http://stjohnboscoparish.org/.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared in the guestbook for the Tencza family. Please click on "Share a Memory"

A message from Sally's granddaughter...

I'm Jeannie Croket, the 2nd youngest of Granny's 4 grand children.

I'm going to read from a book by Kate Lum called “What! Cried Granny: An Almost Bedtime Story.”

When my son Jacob was little, he picked out this book from a Scholastic book sale because it said

Granny on it. It soon became one of our favorites.

Once upon a time there was a boy named Patrick who was having his first sleep over at his Granny's

house.

As the sun began to set, Granny said, “Patrick, dear boy! It will be dark soon. Time to get ready for

bed.”

“But Granny,” said Patrick....”I don't HAVE a bed here.”

“WHAT?” cried Granny. She ran out to her yard where some tall trees were growing, and chopped one

down. She carried it to her workroom, opened her toolbox, and made Patrick a fine bed. Then she

painted it a restful shade of blue, put a comfy mattress on it, and took it to the bedroom.

“There you are dear boy,” said Granny. “Now climb into bed, lay your head on the pillow, and sail off

to dreamland!”

“But Granny,” said Patrick... “I don't HAVE a pillow here.”

“WHAT?!?” cried Granny.

The book goes on because Patrick lacks a pillow, a blanket, and a teddy bear. It details how Granny

gathers feathers from her henhouse to sew Patrick a pillow, shears her sheep and spins and dyes their

wool to make Patrick a blanket, and tears down her curtains to craft Patrick a teddy.

By the time she has made Patrick comfortable, Patrick informs her it's morning and not time to go to

sleep anymore.

Our Granny may not quite have had all the talents of the book Granny, but Jacob and I loved this book

because first of all, it had a Granny in it. It's hard to find printings with “Granny.” And it also starred

Patrick, our cousin. So what were the odds of finding a book with both a Patrick and a Granny?

Probably one in a million. And that was Granny. Like the Granny in the book, our Granny was smart,

active, strong, witty, clever, funny, and she didn't want the people she cared about to be burdened or

inconvenienced so she worked hard to be independent and do what she could to help them out.

I remember when I was little. My mom would tell my sister Lisa and I that Granny was coming over.

It was probably just for a short visit or something. But that meant we had about 10-15 minutes to clean

the house for Granny's arrival. While we were frantically tidying up, we'd realize that Granny should

have already arrived. At some point, one of the 3 of us would happen to see Granny's car parked out

front. We'd step outside looking for her, and we'd find Granny with a huge pile of weeds she'd been

pulling. She was always keeping busy and working.

In fact, she retired at 65 from making golf carts at a factory and took a part time job working at Subway

making sandwiches. “Subway Sally” made her actual retirement at 88. Subway honored Granny with

an award for being the oldest employee they'd ever had.

Granny's parents came to the U.S. from Poland so she spoke some Polish. She taught us the important

Polish words like pierogi, galumki, kruschiki, and of course dupa. And speaking of pierogi, she made

pierogis by hand, hundreds at at time.

She'd make all the little kids 'make kosi kosi' (clap hands, which she pronounced 'tushoo tushoo')

She'd check our stomachs for 'holes' and always insisted she found one and made us eat even more.

She was known for her deep, thought-provoking discussions, like 'If you were walking on a farm,

which would you rather step in, chicken eh-eh or pig eh-eh?' There was NO topic Granny would not

discuss.

You'd think most grandparents would encourage their grandkids to look up to promote confidence and

vision. But not Granny. We learned to look down. And under. And around . . . for dropped money. It

paid off for me when I found $100 at Walgreens.

She had so many interesting stories and beliefs and home remedies. One of which, she shared, was her

dad telling her, when she was a kid, to put the pus of her boils on a quarter and toss it away to help rid

herself of the boils. Which always made me wonder about the money I found as I was looking down...

She collected solar dancing 'monkeys' as she called them. They filled a shelf Mike custom built for

them and eventually continued onto her kitchen table.

She liked to crochet – hankies, pillowcases – and became known for crocheting rugs out of plastic

grocery bags. We'd collect colored bags so Granny could cut them up and make mats.

She had an affinity for leopard print.

Mrs. Miller and crème de banana back in the day.

She loved her soap operas. Granny outlived all of her siblings and friends, and some of their children,

so we always heard what her soap opera characters were doing whether you knew them or not!

Granny almost never missed Saturday mass said a rosary every day. She lit candles for everyone and

prayed often for us. She prayed to St. Anthony as well.

At celebrations, Granny took it upon herself to clean up the gift wrappings. I have lots of photos of

gift openers with some part of Granny next to them with a plastic bag in her hands. Sometimes you

barely had the wrapping off and she had her hand on part of it ready to whisk it away to keep things

tidy!

When you came to Granny's place, you HAD to ring her doorbell incessantly. Even while she was

unlocking her doors, it was customary to keep ringing her doorbell. And just when she thought you

were done, you rang it one more time. It was also customary to use her bathroom every time you

visited. These things made her smile and laugh.

She always had a jar of peanut M&Ms for everyone. She couldn't eat them anymore but you always

had to take some and she'd send you home with some in a bag if you didn't.

She had most of her hallway covered in family photos, especially of the great-grand kids.

She knew the ages and birthdays of all her grand- and great-grand children. It was amazing the things

she could recall.

It was very important to Granny to have a photo of each of our homes on display in her house, also.

She took comfort in knowing we had safe homes – and cars – and good, close jobs to our homes. And

she loved her mobile home and her car. Having her car in top running condition was important to

Granny. She was still driving at 98 years old and cared for her car.

Granny's wish was to win the lottery so everyone could get some money and pay off their homes and

have a good life so she bought scratch-off tickets often.

But Granny's most prized possession was her shadow box in her living room. Every family member is

represented by some figurine on proud display. And her living room contained sentimental items from

various events in her life. She could tell you all-about each and every one like it happened yesterday.

A lot of us knew Granny well. There are people here today who maybe met Granny a couple of times

or not at all but knew her through stories from her family and friends. They cheered for Granny in the

background or said silent prayers for her or just thought about her once in a while. These people may

or may not be here today celebrating the 98 years & 3 months that she was on this Earth – but thank

you.

Granny lived a full and active life. She liked to dance a good Polka. Polkas remind me of Granny

because she introduced and kept the Polish heritage going in our family. But the one Polka that is so

reminiscent of Granny is the Chicken Dance.

If you're not familiar, it starts with the beak. Just looking at the hand movement, you can picture

Granny chatting away!

The next movement is to flap your wings. Granny could occasionally get frustrated and she'd 'flap her

wings' when the news interrupted her soaps or the stray cat used her lawn as a litter box or you didn't

hug her hello or good bye – you HAD to hug Granny...

Then you shake your tail feathers, like when a chicken walks the yard. Granny walked her house, her

neighborhood, and drove to the stores and walked there – at 98 years old.

The final step is four hand claps. Granny was always cheering us on and encouraging, wanted the best

for us, was so proud of us, loved us.

I know she wouldn't want us sitting around being sad today. She'd tell us, with her new bionic hip, to

get up and Polka. She'd want us CELEBRATING her 98 years and 3 months.

So I am going to ask you all to stand up and “do the chicken” as Granny used to say – don't worry, it's a

60 second version. She's forever walking in her new life and dancing with the angels.

It's our last time to do the Chicken Dance with Granny.

If you missed it, on the day of Granny's funeral, I went with my mom to see Granny's casket burial.

Literally as she was placed in the ground and the first bucket of dirt was unloaded onto her casket, it

started to pour rain. It seemed to be a sign that Granny allowed us to see her safe in her new home, to

give us comfort knowing she was in her permanent place with Jesus, but then to stop crying and

dwelling on her death and celebrate her life. Because it poured hard the entire drive over and just as I

parked and shut off my car, the rain stopped. Entirely. Just in time for the luncheon to start and the

celebration of her life, both here on Earth, and in Heaven, to begin.