Bernice "Marion" Hanson

Marion Hanson, 88, of Westland, Michigan, died peacefully on January 10, 2022, after a brief illness.  Her beloved husband Victor of 64 years preceded her in death in 2016. She was the loving mother of Mari-Lynne (Gerald) Moroni of Macomb, Lisa (Scott) Russell of Clarkston, Susan Hanson of Westland, and Katrina (Greg) Dumont of Westminster, MD. Dearest grandma of Vincent (fiancée Rachael) Verna, Matthew Verna, Quinn Russell, Zandra Russell, and Hanson Russell. She is survived by her brother Paul Haworth and sister-in-law Sandra Hanson. She was treasured by many nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors.  She was preceded in death by her parents, and sister.   
 
Daughter of Louis and Margueritte (Souslin) Haworth, Marion was born at her childhood home in Detroit in 1933. She was the little sister to Paul and Theresa.  She met the love of her life, Vic Hanson, when she was 15 years old and began following him around on his Detroit Free Press paper route in their neighborhood.  She graduated from Cooley High School in 1951. They were married in 1952 and were blessed with four daughters and five grandchildren during their 64 years of marriage. Marion has lived in the Westland home that they built since 1957, and is the last original owner in the neighborhood.  
 
Marion’s first career was working for Michigan Bell as a switchboard operator.  She officially started her second career on Mother’s Day 1958 when her first daughter was born.  It was a job she loved very much, was amazingly skilled at, and never retired from.  She was an active mom shuttling her children to school, dance lessons, scout meetings, and many other activities over the years. She was a gifted seamstress of many dance costumes, dresses, and Home Ec projects.  She was a school library volunteer and an avid reader who raised her girls to love books and libraries. Marion always thought her kitchen skills were limited, but really she had a husband who liked his food burned and daughters who could never agree on a dish they all liked.  But certainly serving delicious “Jerry Hodak chicken” and carrot cake on Corelle golden butterfly pattern dishes was always a hit.   

Marion loved word games, jigsaw puzzles, and card games (always referring to pinochle rules, yet never taught anyone to play). She loved to visit and travel with her family and friends and always enjoyed a good adventure. Her technology prowess was limited, but mastered the iPad for games, reading The Facebook, and joining the weekly Saturday family Zoom nights where you could frequently see her whole face and not just the ceiling fan.  She was frugal, slow to make decisions, and never liked spending money on herself.  She had impeccable handwriting and was a master record keeper saving all receipts, childhood artwork, and manuals for appliances that were discarded decades ago.  She was patient, kind, happy, generous, and had a quiet strength, like going to the voting booth and cancelling out her husband’s vote without ever letting him know.  Marion was amazingly calm, very forgiving, rarely swore, and had great hugs.  She was a much admired mother and served as an Other Mother to her sons-in-law, friends and neighbors. With her beautiful wavy white hair, kind eyes and friendly smile, she was very approachable and often learned life stories of strangers that she would meet because she was an amazing listener and was a true people person. 

Having survived a major health crisis in 2002, Marion lived 20 lucky years longer than expected and missed her 89th birthday by just 17 days.  But she is in time to reunite with her beloved husband, Vic, who she has missed dearly and can attend their grandson’s wedding from on high in a few weeks.  Marion will be sorely missed as the matriarch of a loving family, but will live on in many people’s hearts and memories.  She will send reminders of herself a zillion different ways – like when you spy a yellow rose, find a face in objects or patterns, have someone bring up a topic that has just been discussed, or see Winnie-the-Pooh whose shortness, roundness, silliness, and cuteness is very similar to Marion. 

In her honor, please do a kindness for someone else – call a friend, say hello to a stranger, give a hug, tell someone you love them because time goes too fast. 

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