Mary M. Weidensager

Mary was born Maria Zeimann on February 16, 1941, in Kaschau (now Košice, Slovakia) to Emil and Margarete Zeimann. Her family called her Marika.

She was four years old when they left in February 1945, moving west ahead of an army. They spent four years in Austria waiting for a country to take them. On July 1, 1949, they boarded an army transport at Bremerhaven, one of the ships carrying displaced families to America, and reached New York Harbor on the 29th. She was eight years old. After her family was detained at Ellis Island, they moved to Hudson County, New Jersey, to begin a life in America.

She grew up with her younger sister, Irene. In April 1960, she married Robert Weidensager. Two years later, she gave birth to their son, John; six years later, they had their daughter, Christina. They soon moved to Chalfont, Pennsylvania, where Mary spent the rest of her life.

She filled a yard — flowers to the edges, birdseed out year-round, food left for stray cats or any hungry animal that came by. She also fed and cared for the strays at Lake Galena. There was always laundry on the line, which doubled as a paddleball net for her grandchildren.

She never sat still, except for when she was watching golf or her soap operas. Into her seventies, she played pickup basketball at North Branch Park. She rode bicycles 30, 40, 50, or more miles. She loved the ocean and for twenty-plus years, vacationed in Jupiter, Florida, with her husband John (aka Jack). In him, she met her adventure partner and spent 40 years together living life outdoors.

A little red pickup truck. Green tea with a splash of cranberry. Yellow bundt cake with chocolate frosting. Scones from the bakery where she worked. A kitchen that smelled of vegetables cooking. Thrillers in the back porch rocking chair — Patterson, Crichton, Grisham, and more. Ice cream before dinner, unapologetically. Hours of pushing grandkids on the swings. Or teaching them how to rollerblade. Or skip rocks.

She was not an easy woman, and, as Whitman said, "she contained multitudes." But those who loved her did it anyway.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents, first husband Robert, and stepfather Josef Huebler. She is survived by her husband John (Jack) Kennelly, her sister Irene Kubitsky (Matt) and niece Anne Kubitsky, her son John Weidensager (Lucy Reeves), daughter Christina Handley (Randall), grandchildren Lauren Schneider (Tom) and Randall Handley (Tom Gambone), and her great-grandchildren Ellie and Cole Schneider. 

There will be no services. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that you feed something: a shelter, a rescue, the squirrels, the birds in your own yard. She would have left out scrambled eggs, birdseed, and fresh water for all.