Honoring Stacie: A Legacy of Nurturing

Whether you called her Stacie, Ms. Stacie, Stace, Aunt Stacie, Momma, or Hun, one thing is for certain - she touched many lives. Stacie dedicated her life to helping families and children. She started working at the Washtenaw Community College Children's Center when she was 23. She went on to work there for 21 years. During that time, she met and married her husband, Alan, met her best friend, Kirsten, (and many other wonderful friends), bought her first house, had her first child (followed by her second, third, fourth, and fifth). After the Children's Center closed during COVID, she was faced with trying to sort out what to do with her life. She debated about a few options, but ultimately decided that working with families is what she was called to do. She continued on at another child care center for a little while before finding her dream job at the YMCA. She loved all they stood for and how her work benefited so many people. She drew such joy out of nurturing children. She also had a great love of nurturing pets and plants. Her family has many pets (cats, dogs, guinea pigs - they've also had fish, an axolotl, a hedgehog, etc.). I often joked that her house was "Knox Farms" because of all of the animals. When one of the guinea pigs had a baby, she gave the baby skin-to-skin time on her chest to help comfort it. She did the same to her own children, nieces, and nephews. She called cuddling babies her happy place. She struggled for a long time with infertility before having their first child. The doctors told her she would never get pregnant. One day, the biggest miracle happened when she found out she was pregnant with her oldest daughter, Allison. After that, something clicked, and she went on to have 4 other children - Violet, Abbie, Lulu, and Layne. Together with her husband Alan, they had 25 happy years of marriage.

She grew up in a big family with lots of siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. When our family moved back to Michigan, she lived next door with our grandparents and grew very close with them. She was also incredibly close with our mother, Julie Webb. Stacie has been through a lot in her life, and had many, many people who loved and supported her over the years. She will be dearly missed.

Like most couples today, Stacie and Alan were a 2 income family. As we try to sort out how to make things work moving forward, Stacie's family could really use your help. The biggest need is financial.

Some other ways to help include:

1. Food gift cards. Some favorite places are: Noodles & Company, Wendy's, Subway, Tim Horton's, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Little Caesars, etc. Door Dash is also welcome.

2. Grocery gift cards: Wal-Mart, Meijer, Kroger, etc.

3. There is a lot of work needed around their house (new air conditioner, replacing carpeting, fixing a couple of light fixtures, paint, etc.). So, gift cards to Home Depot would be fantastic.

4. The front landscaping needs to be replaced. The kids are hoping to replace it with a memorial garden full of plants and flowers. There's a wonderful landscaping company in Saline that I'm planning to go through. I'm not sure if they offer gift cards, but it's called Turner's Garden Center: https://turnersannarbor.com/

Most of all, please reach out to Alan, the kids, our Mom (Julie), and our whole family in the coming weeks and months to show your continued support. We're going to need it. Thank you!

We love you, Stacie!!! We will see you again someday.