Patricia Marusa Hajek

I was born on June 10, 1919, the tenth and last child of Mary Stroker Marusa and Andrew Marusa. We lived in the small central Pennsylvania town of Madera. My Father had come to the U.S. from Europe where he lived near what is now the Slovakia border with Austria in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Madera, Dad lived in a rooming house where Mother was the daughter of the owners. Love followed and they married in 1899 when she was only 13 years old.

When I was eight years old, we moved to Cleveland, Ohio, sometime after my Dad had gone there first to establish himself as a grocer. These were difficult times for families, and I grew up during the Great Depression. Not all of my siblings graduated from high school because they needed to quit school to work and help support our family. But they all made successful and productive lives for themselves and their families. I was fortunate to graduate from West Technical High School, and then to attend a little bit of business school.

The World was at war, and even though the U.S. had not yet entered the war, a considerable industrial effort was underway for its support. I worked then in a ball bearing factory in Cleveland, and later at Halle’s Department Store on West 25th Street. It was there that I met Robert James Hajek, the love of my life and the father of my children. He worked at the Astrup Company across the street.

Bob entered the Army Air Corps shortly after we met, and we chased around the country together as he was restationed in places like Seattle, San Antonio, and Denver. We finally married and he was moved to what is now Hanscomb AFB near Bedford, Massachusetts. This was quite a scandal in our family since I was raised Catholic and Bob was raised United Brethren which later merged with the Methodists. In Bedford we lived across the street from the famous Minuteman statue. Our first son, Brian, was born there. About a year later, we moved back to Cleveland and our family began to grow. Patti and Gary were born just a couple years apart in Deaconess General Hospital, not far from our house.

We moved to Parma in 1960, and this is where the formative years of my children’s lives took place. We continued to be active members of our church in our old Cleveland neighborhood even though Good Shepherd United Methodist Church was right down the street from us. That is where Gary got his start as a singer and performer, I think around when he was five. Our “kids” enjoyed church camp in the summers, and I even was a counselor a couple times at Camp Wanake. We also enjoyed vacationing in Michigan most summers.

As a design engineer/salesman for The Astrup Company, Bob spent the warmer months with us in Cleveland, but traveled during the Winter months selling wholesale. This left me essentially at home as a single mom. I really feel now for one-parent families and for those whose spouses are deployed fighting wars away from home for long periods. A goal for all of you I will have left behind needs to be to help our world live more respectfully and happily together.

Brian left home in Parma in 1962 to go to college and then married in 1966. Patti left in 1967 and married in 1969. Gary left after high school in 1969. Oh how our lives changed after that.

Patti lived about 60 miles from us and had two beautiful and wonderful daughters, Jennifer and Megan. She finished school a few years later and became a professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. There she had a third daughter, Elizabeth. I have been so blessed to have been a part of her family and to have had her love and the love of her daughters. Patti just recently retired and moved to Charlotte to be close to Jennifer and Elizabeth and their families.

Brian and his wife Edith adopted their first child David in 1973, and then Lisa in 1976. We lost David in the early 90s. Brian recently retired from Ohio State and works part time for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a job he is able to do remotely from here in Columbus.

Gary started his career as a musician in Vermont and Massachusetts, and began his family in 1988 when Laura was born, and four years later Jeffery was born. Gary lives near Lake George in New York with his wife, Elizabeth.

I have been so blessed with my grandchildren and to have been able to participate in their lives. I am so happy for them and all they have accomplished, though I am sorry a bit for the way society has changed from my childhood days and our family has moved geographically apart. I understand the need to live where jobs are and for everyone to pursue their dreams. But, I have missed the closeness that families had “in the old days.”

Now as I depart this world, I have eight wonderful great-grandchildren as well. Isn’t it wonderful to have the blessings of family? I love them all so much, and I miss them even more. The happiest moments of my life have been when they have visited. Lisa and her husband Matt Hall have three boys Logan, Cameron, and Reid who are close to me here in Columbus; Megan and her husband Mark Gifford have a boy and a girl, Mason and Mariya; Jennifer and her husband Troy Burns have two daughters, Emily and Sarah; Elizabeth and her husband Tim Berrien have a blended family that includes Elizabeth’s Ella and Lily, Nate, and Lauren. They are all special, brilliant, and loving. How I wish I could be here to see them all grow up and have families themselves. At the same time I don’t think when I was younger I ever thought I could become a great-grandmother – Nana the Great!

From the mid-sixties until Bob retired, I worked in the Parma School System, primarily at Schaaf Junior High where I was responsible for all the technology equipment when technology was first being placed in the schools. We had a lot of new and exciting equipment such as motion picture projectors and slide projectors and whole school announcement systems (This was long before the Internet and Facebook, which I learned to use at age 80 after moving to Columbus.). This was wonderful work and the students were both fun to be with and difficult to contend with. But I enjoyed working with so many wonderful teachers who have remained my friends ever since.

After WWII, Bob and I enjoyed the American Legion and I was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Joseph J. Jacubic Unit 572. Later after our children had grown and left home for their lives, we became active with Parma Elks Lodge # 1938. I always maintained my memberships in these organizations even after moving from Cleveland.

Once Bob retired at age 72 in 1983, and I retired at the same time, his health began to fail and his care became difficult. Finally by 1999 we needed to move to Columbus where we could receive more care for both of us. Bob passed in 2002. Oh how I have missed him and his companionship.

I have lived here at The Forum Retirement Community for these past 14 years. I have made wonderful friendships here. Unfortunately they have often been fleeting. You learn in a different way how precious life is and how important it is to cherish friendships and family especially. So many people here at The Forum have not had the family support I have enjoyed. I hope that I have been able to truly make their lives a bit happier as they have made my life happier.

I have always been a sports fan. While in Cleveland I played golf and won the Grandmother Putting Contest several times. I also cheered for the Cleveland Browns and Indians, as difficult as that was and still is. After coming to Columbus, I became a great Ohio State fan. On any given Saturday in the Fall, I could be found cheering for my Buckeyes, and on at least one Saturday each Fall for the past 14 years, I could be found surrounded with thousands of friends all yelling for the home team in the Horseshoe. In winter and spring months I’d be cheering for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. I’d also be cheering for the latest favorite on the PGA tour on most weekends during the golf season.

I want to thank all the wonderful staff and care givers at The Forum. I am afraid to name them because I may miss a couple but I will try. During the past year since my cancer was diagnosed, they have been even kinder and more loving in my life than I ever could have wished. I tried to always have a joke for them, a bracelet for the ladies, and encouragement for everyone. My Faith invigorated me. Everyone has been so good to me. Let’s see, there was Paula, Daisy, Charlotte, Chris, Sue and Suzanne, Larry, Bill, Bill, and Bill, Lewis, Richard, Jeanne and Darlene, Becky, and of course Gary Sontag who would not let me miss Bingo or a Worship service. My Arlingworth nurses, in particular Brenda and Jesse, Margie and Alma, Marty and Linda, made my wound care bearable for almost a year. Their caring and special trips could not have been appreciated more! My nurses and the aides in Assisted Living at The Forum truly enabled these final six weeks. Thank you so much for your caring concern and love. Then there were the many entertainers who came on Friday afternoons and who befriended me including Cathy, Mark, and Johnny. My youngest son Gary is now entertaining at Senior Centers in his area in upstate New York. I am so proud of him doing this work because it is so much more important to the residents than he will ever be able to appreciate.

And then there were all my caregivers at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center, Dr. Bhuvana Ramaswamy, Deidra Deam, Julia Garrett, my physical therapists Laura, Lori, and Allyson, and Misty and Susie who always needed my birth date.

I am the last of my generation, having been preceded in death by my parents (well, I am 94) and all nine of my siblings. I miss them so, especially my sister Pauline and my brother Marty. But I do remember the others. Steve who cared for his little sister so much, and Dorothy (Dot) who I became closer to as we both aged. I am looking forward to being together with you very soon. And then also there was John (Jack) who spent his first year or so in Europe when Dad took Mother home to meet his parents and got drafted while he was there; Anna, and Suzanne (Sue) who died so young also with cancer; Mary who I never knew, and my youngest brother Albert (Al).

It’s raining outside and the sun is shining through it, bringing the gift of new life to the world outdoors, and now I must go. I am so happy to have been here to share this world and your lives with you.

Epilogue

Mother/Nana was an inspiration to everyone she touched. She was an example of strength of body and spirit and love to us all. Her love of life and her family and her incredible determination to live the life she chose is an example of comments often made by her friends at the Forum during this past year and her battle with breast cancer. Everyone who has commented on her life has told us how positive she was, how upbeat she was, and how she always was able to raise the spirits in a room.

For us, her family, we experienced this for our entire lives as she challenged us to excel, constantly encouraged us to do better, and praised us when we succeeded. First and foremost to us, her three “bares,” her love was experienced every day. If you ever visited with her in her home you know this refers to us three children and the baby pictures that were always present in a prominent location in her home.

Mother was the ultimate care giver, for Dad’s Aunt Sylvia and his cousin Helen as they aged and passed away in Cleveland nursing homes, and then for Dad during the last 10-15 years of his life. She set the standard for us, and I hope we lived up to it during her illnesses over the past five years and especially this last year.

A major part of her life that made her move to Columbus acceptable was the opportunity to work out at the McConnell Heart Health Center. This was a continuation of her exercise routine started after her open heart surgery in 1997. It continued three days a week along with exercise daily at the Forum until just a week before her passing. But what really lit up her life were her visits with her grandchildren and their children. There truly was no greater pleasure in her life than hearing their stories and getting a hug from them. She taught us what is most important in life. She always had a joke or a funny story to tell. She loved crafts, and never allowed a family or friend visit to occur without having a bracelet to give to the ladies.

Planning

A graveside service will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, at Riverside Cemetery at the family site at 1:30 on Friday afternoon, August 16th, where in her words, “I will take my place for all eternity next to my beloved husband.” A celebration of her life will be held on Friday afternoon, August 23rd at 2 pm at The Forum, 4625 Knightsbridge Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43214.

Friends have established a memorial fund at the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research, c/o the James Development office, 660 Ackerman Rd; P.O. Box 183112, Columbus, OH 43218. Donations also may be made in her memory to the Ohio Health Hospice, c/o Ohio Health Foundation, 180 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215.