Sylvia Elizabeth Grant

Sylvia was born October 30, 1924 to Marcia & Benjamin F. Marks in Chicago, Illinois. She passed on November 4, 2020 due to the COVID-19 virus.

Sylvia is survived by her daughter Diana Dyer with spouse Dick and sons Eric (with spouse Alison) and Garrison (with spouse Anna and son Samuel), her son Geoffrey (with spouse Ann, granddaughter Laylah, and daughter Candice with spouse Patrick and daughter Judith); her son Gregory (with spouse Marilyn and sons Gabriel with spouse Sarah and daughters Ariana and Madeleine, and Joel with spouse Erin and daughter Florence), and her son Bradley (with spouse Patrea and sons Ryan, Brandon with spouse Ashley and sons Christopher and Jameson and daughter Lucy, and Adam with spouse Danielle and daughter Maria). Sylvia was predeceased by her parents, brother Thomas, husband Leo Arthur Grant, sister Gwenyth Birch and her granddaughter Carissa.

Sylvia/mom graduated from Harper High School in Chicago and attended community college to study meteorology. Sylvia married high school sweetheart Leo/dad on June 13, 1948, after he returned from serving in WWII as a radar specialist and completed his Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Illinois. While dad was serving with the U.S. Army in the Philippines, mom was serving as a meteorologist at the Chicago Municipal (now Midway) Airport to help bring soldiers safely back home. Mom and dad began their almost 52 years of marriage at the Annunciation Episcopal Church in Chicago, creating a wonderful family and many fond memories with relatives, friends and their families.

After marrying, mom and dad moved to Wauseon, Ohio for dad’s job with the Toledo Edison Company. There, they had three of their children in 1950 and 1951, after which they relocated to Toledo. Following their fourth child in 1952, dad left Toledo Edison to start his own business in outside electrical construction. It was a very busy life for mom as the mother of four, having moved a long distance away from both sets of parents and other relatives in the Chicago area. Still, mom and dad together made many friends in the neighborhood and through dad’s work. So, the support system for raising four children was very strong. Mom even found time to be actively involved in her children’s parent-teacher association (PTA) and cub scouts. Building the business consumed many weekend hours along with a long work week, but dad still found time to coach little league baseball; we also had a side yard where mom and dad together would build an ice rink in the winter, so we could play with neighborhood friends year-round. Thus, mom joyfully helped raise the neighbors’ children right along with her own. Mom and dad worked together to keep their children delivering newspapers, doing their homework, science projects, music lessons (though deaf in one ear from an early age, mom had perfect pitch and loved playing the piano), Sunday service and school, etc. Looking back, I don’t have any idea how mom could handle even half the action she was constantly juggling. We also had Uncle Eric, a brother of dad’s mother, and his family in Maumee, Ohio and Aunt Tiny (Elizabeth), sister to mom’s mother, and her family in Jackson, Michigan, for many special weekend and holiday gatherings.

Normally, for Thanksgiving, we would head to Chicago, where we could catch up with our many relatives. For Christmas and New Year’s, we would usually be home in Toledo. For a summer vacation, we would often pile the family into the station wagon and head for some unusual place, such as to see old friends like Oscar Schubert, an Army buddy of dad’s, in Morgantown, WV. We were also blessed to be able to spend many summer vacations in Minocqua, WI, where my dad’s parents ‘retired’ by building and managing a resort on Blue Lake and then ‘retired’ again after building another cottage for themselves next to the resort. Mom really enjoyed finding the best driftwood for creating displays with the figurines she would collect or make herself. Mom’s love for the outdoors, animals (cats, dogs, birds, squirrels, etc.) and nature in general showed most on vacations (trees, deer, the loons of Blue Lake, Merganser ducks, the Bald Eagles, Blue Lake’s peaceful coves, etc.), which she passed onto her children. One summer, dad could not get away from work, so mom piled us all into the station wagon with a tent to go see some of our National Parks, like the Badlands, the Black Hills, Yellowstone, the Tetons and Glacier. Dad was able to catch up with us by flying into Boise, Idaho. We drove all the way to Bremerton, Washington where we visited with mom’s brother Tom and his family. I think mom may have enjoyed this vacation most of all, especially seeing the double rainbow at the Badlands. After the children flew the nest, mom and dad enjoyed many vacations with their friends like Jack and Norma Grafing.

Inherited from her parents, one activity mom particularly enjoyed with dad and others was playing cards, especially cribbage, hearts, ‘oh heck’ and bridge, which they would often use as an excuse to get together with neighbors and relatives. We kids could always find something to stay busy and quiet with during these gatherings. Mom especially enjoyed contract bridge, and later even became a bridge “master” by earning points in regional contests. Mom also enjoyed gardening and many physical sports as well, such as tennis, badminton, ice and roller skating, ping pong, shuffleboard and swimming, especially synchronized swimming. Less physically, mom was a super chef and also thoroughly enjoyed scrap booking and making photo albums for her family, researching her family’s roots along with dad, art, ceramics and home decorating. Artistically inclined, mom’s 8th grade art teacher had told her she was good enough to work for Hallmark one day.

To summarize, not only was mom the best possible mom with her selfless dedication to her family, with dad, mom taught her children and the children of many others much about living life to the fullest, especially to do your best, to be honest, to treat everyone with kindness and respect, to be charitable and thankful for the blessings one receives.

The family thanks Maple Park Village in Westfield and Heartland Hospice for all their loving care during mom’s most challenging time health-wise, as well as everyone’s thoughts and prayers for mom, and all the churches ministering to mom’s spiritual needs throughout her life, particularly Aldersgate United Methodist, Epworth United Methodist and Unity in the Toledo area.

In light of the virus, it is planned to have a memorial service in mom’s honor sometime this fall, perhaps around October 30th, near what would have been mom’s 97th birthday. Memorial contributions may be made to Heartland Hospice at 931 East 86th Street, Suite 208, Indianapolis, IN 46250. We welcome additional memories, which can be added online at: www.indianafuneralcare.com.