Marie L. Erickson

She was born in Ishpeming, daughter of the late Cecil and Josephine (Rigstad) Bengry.

Marie enjoyed life and did many things: playing cards, scrabble, dominoes and working on crossword puzzles, crypto-grams and jumbles were just a few of her many interests.

She will be greatly missed by her dear friends and card partners. Marie enjoyed traveling to many distant places; but most of all she loved teaching school in Iron Mountain.

She is survived by her two children from her first marriage to Arne Roman, a daughter Mary Jo (Jerome) Mattioli, and a son, Donald George (Elaine Piolunek) Roman; five grandsons, Steven and Charles (Kelly Anne) Roman, Jerome (David Leman), Roman (Jennifer) and Jeffrey (Laura) Mattioli; four great-grandchildren, Sophia Marie and Porter Baird Mattioli, Caroline Marie and Rocco Roman; as well as several nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, Marie was preceded in death by her first husband, Arne Roman; her second husband, Eric Erickson; one sister, Dorothy (Edwin) Groth; and by two brothers, Robert (Vivian) and Earl (Nell) Bengry.

Marie believed and would say: “Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we live so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of being in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile and think of me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well.”

“The Afterglow” poem is an appropriate way to remember her:

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.

I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.

I’d like to leave and echo whispering softly down the ways,

Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.

I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun

Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.

In accordance with Marie’s wishes, private family services will be held at a later date.

You may light a candle in remembrance of Marie or leave a condolence for her family online at www.jacobsfuneralhomes.com.

The family has chosen the Jacobs Funeral Home, Iron Mountain, to honor Marie’s legacy of life.