Miriam Elizabeth Trojahn

She was the daughter of Edward G. and Miriam A. (Applegate) Dowling. Born on 12 April 1939 in Newark, New Jersey, she grew up in South Amboy, New Jersey where she graduated from Hoffman High in 1957 and later the Eastern School for Physician’s Aids in New York City. In her youth, she spent many summers at the family cabin in the Pocono Mountains where she loved horseback riding and met her first husband, Burton F. MacGregor. The Navy brought her to Norfolk, Virginia as Burton served. She fell in love with the area, but when they divorced she with her three boys moved back to New Jersey.

Her second love was square dancing where she met her second husband, Charles E. Trojahn. They married and moved South back to Norfolk. At some point she was certified as a Histologist but there were no jobs available. Being the strong independent woman she was, she found jobs as a bartender, store clerk, and even a shipyard welder where she worked on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.

For a few years, she ventured South to the Gulf Coast living in places like Daphne, Alabama, Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but her heart was still in Norfolk. When she returned, she landed a job in the Pathology department at Sentara Norfolk General, where she worked for 27 years before retiring. In retirement she enjoyed the occasional cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean, visited states like Colorado, Utah, Texas, Florida. She even made it to Scotland taking in the lovely Highlands.

Both her husbands preceded her in death. She is survived by a brother, Roger E. Dowling of Sayreville, New Jersey; four sons, Scott and Tobey MacGregor of Norfolk, Richard MacGregor of Virginia Beach, and Fritz Trojahn of Suffolk; seven grandchildren, Stuart, Jamie, Darcie, Maeghan, Dakota, Dylan, and Brandon; and four great-grandchildren, William, Logan, Brennen, and Emerald.

A memorial service will be held at a later time, at which time it will be announced. Her ashes will be scattered in the mountains that she so loved.

With mom being the cat lover she was, in lieu of flowers, please direct your donations to Best Friends Animal Society.

The family would like to THANK all the caregivers who looked after her in recent years.