Marivene is a reader who has commented on my site for years, and I have learned so much from her comments. Because of her, I put a grape leaf in every jar of pickles I make, so that they are crunchy.
In the past, when she has not commented for a couple of weeks, I have always received emails from different readers, asking if she is okay because they have missed her comments.
Her time on this earth is coming to an end.
She says, “I entered hospice care a little over a week ago, & it is moving quickly. I am comfortable and at peace. I have been blessed to understand that it is simply my time to go home. Cancer is simply the vehicle, not the enemy. Knowing that my husband has been granted the same understanding is priceless. I love my Savior, & after 65 years, I have learned that His plan–whatever it is–is always better than mine!”
Marivene Amelia Zohner, we will miss your wisdom. Thank you for all that you have taught us.
Updated from her daughter, Julie, who posted the following message in the comments 10/16:
Hello everyone. I am one of Marivene’s daughters. We just wanted to let you all know that she passed away peacefully yesterday morning. She was able to read the comments on this post and shared it with us prior to her passing. She enjoyed being part of your community. We are working on compiling a list of all her posts (there were a lot….), and hope at some future date to be able to provide this to those who may be interested. Thank you so much for allowing her to share her wisdom and appreciating her contributions.
Thank you for letting us know. You have such an amazing and genuine heart to do this.. and that’s why your readers are loyal.
Brandy, thank you for letting us know. Ah my heart is sad, I too have looked forward to Marivene’s comments and enjoyed her personality as it comes through in her writing. God speed, Marivene.
Marivene and Brandy, I have never commented here. How very sorry I am to hear this news. Marivene, I love the peace you and your husband have. God bless you. Brandy, thank you for letting us know. Leslie
I will miss reading Marivene’s comments. I’m praying for a peaceful passing.
Marivene we will miss you. I loved all your comments and learned so much. Sending warm thoughts and prayers your way.
I am sorry for Marivene’s family and friends while rejoicing thst she will soon meet her Lord and Savior. I am happy that she is accepting of this and hopeful that hospice is able to ease any physical or mental pain she has and help her family through this.
Thank you for letting us know. I will truly miss her comments and perspective. I’m sad but am grateful she is peaceful
Marivene: I don’t know if you still have the strength or desire to read these comments, but I hope you know how many long distance friends and admirers you have developed. Thank you for all the times you have commented. Godspeed.
Thanks to you, Brandy, for posting this information.
Oh I am so sorry to hear this! 🙁 I did definitley notice that she hadn’t been commenting lately, and was shocked when she mentioned she had cancer. I hardly ever comment, but I do read the comments every week. I specifically sought out to read dear Marivene’s wisdom each and every week. I would have liked to have known her in person. I know she will be missed by all of us in this community you have created. Glad she is comfortable and at peace. What a great example she is to all. Prayers of comfort to her family in this trial.
Thank you for posting this, Brandy. I have enjoyed reading Marivene’s comments through the years, and her frugal wisdom will be missed. What a blessing that she is at peace as she passes from this life to the next.
Goodbye, Marivene, and thank you.
I pray her time in hospice is gentle and peaceful and it is not long before she runs into the Savior’s arms. I pray for the family and friends both in real life and in our community here as well.
Thank you so much for letting us know about Marivene. I am sure she has no idea how many lives she has touched through her comments, warmth and helpfulness. Really, isn’t that what a community is? We will sorely miss her here but know she is going home. Safe journey Marivene.
Bless you, Marivene, for sharing your time and wisdom with us. Prayers for both you and your family. It makes me sad that you have to leave here, but I know you have a wonderful life ahead of you.
Thank you for sharing this news, Brandy.
Lea
Marivene
I hope you are still able to read these comments. You have touched us all by your comments and spirit. I hope your journey is peaceful. Bon courage and God Speed. Ann
Marivene, you will be missed by many. Thank you for sharing your knowledge over the years.
I too enjoyed her comments. She lives in my same city and she has responded to questions I’ve asked. She’s very wise and has a great spirit. So sorry she has this trial
Thank you for letting us know, Brandy. I had been wondering as well. Peace to you Marivene and I hope your family finds peace as well in their memories of your love and care.
Thank you for letting us know. I think of Marivene every time I pull one bucket of weeds on a busy day–she always encouraged us to do that–and it is a great way to break a large job into a small one. There were many other things I enjoyed about her posts, as well. I am sure she is spending her last bit of time with the family she so clearly loved and was so close to, and that makes me happy for her, too.
I feel blessed that I received her wisdom. Marivene, you will be missed.
I admire Marivene’s fortitude, courage and strength of spirit as she transitions from this earthly life. Marivene, Prayers to you and your family. I started following your blog early this year and have enjoyed reading Marivene’s comments full of wisdom and life.
Thank you for letting us know.
Oh my. I have missed her comments and have wondered. Thank you for letting us know. Marivene, say hi to our Savior & Father, as well as all our brothers & sisters. Prayers for peace & comfort for family & friends.
If she or her family read this, I screen shot her words so that I might remember them again when needed. Her wisdom will be here long after she is not. Brandy, thank you.
Praying for her and her family!
Thank you Brandy for letting us know both Marivene and her family will be in our prayers at this time. I am glad she is spending time with her loving family.
I will also remember Marivene for her bucket of weeds and building her walls on her garden beds too bit by bit.
So sorry for the loss of your friend. I enjoy and value all the commenters on your blog, and think of them as helpful as your posts Brandy. She will be in my thoughts today as I will pray for her peaceful and pain free moments.
Thank you for sharing, Brandy. My heart is heavy.
Thank you. I always looked forward to Marivene’s wise and practical words. May her memory be a blessing.
Thank you for letting us know. This is a lovely site when we make the folks who comment here our friends and feel their pain and triumph. I will pray for Marivene and her family as they spend their last time together on this earth.
I hope she or her husband see this post and comments and feel thr love. I’m so sorry to see this news but love the peace she shared. Marivene taught much through her comments here.
I’ve always enjoyed her comments. She will be missed.
I have read the comments for many years and not made a comment of my own . I love this blog because Brandy is such a loving and positive person. I get so much more out of reading the wonderful comments everyone makes than how to economize, so many of the readers are going through life with that same loving and kind heart.
Blessings to Marivene and her family. Blessings to each and everyone of you. Thank you .
God bless Marivene and her family at this time. They are all in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you Brandy for letting us know. She will be missed.
I’ve enjoyed her comments. My prayers are with you Marivene. God Bless.
Marivene, I’ve enjoyed so many of your posts and will miss you as part of this community. I am glad that you are at peace with this and thank you for all your friendship to us on this blog.
Oh I ask sad to read this! God bless Marivene and her family during this difficult time. You will be remembered by many.
Brandy, thank you for sharing this. I’m thinking of Marivene and her family. Her final comments of peace and acceptance were an encouragement and blessing to me as my husband is in hospice care after a 10-year battle with cancer.
I’ve always enjoyed reading Marivene’s comments over the years, as I do each and every one of your followers who share such helpful information for us frugally minded folks. I’m praying peace for her and her family as she transitions to her heavenly home. How wonderful is it to know that when our time on earth is over, we have a kingdom to go home to? I know we will all miss her here on earth but will rejoice in knowing that she will no longer suffer and will be in the presence of our Lord.
I have loved reading Marivene’s posts and found so much wisdom and inspiration in them. I will miss you, Marivene, and pray for peace, light, and love for you and your family.
So very sad. I was always surprised when she didn’t comment, it never occurred to me that she was ill. I witnessed some horrible deaths…I am happy to hear that hers should be peaceful and surrounded by family.
Sending prayers for Marivene and her family during this time. May she continue to have peace and comfort.
May her journey be easy and her family comforted. Your tribute says so much about her and you too. Thank you. I needed to see this today.
Marivene, thank you so much for blessing us with your incredible wisdom for so many years. You will be very missed by this community. Thank you kindly, Brandy, for letting us all know.
I was so afraid that your post was about Marivene when I saw the title (I’ve always worried when there was a break in her posts). This breaks my heart. She and her family will be in my thoughts. I’m sure they know, but if they read this – Please know what a blessing she is to our community and thank you for sharing her with us. You will be missed.
Oh dear, I’m so sad at learning this. I’ve loved reading Marivene’s comments and her energy and love for her family. I too pray that she meets her Lord with gladness. Please let her know that she has touched so many lives with her comments.
That was a lovely tribute Brandy. Thanks for letting us know.
Oh gosh. So sad to hear this. Marivene’s wisdom has helped us in so many ways. I, too, have learned from her to tackle weed pulling just one bucket at a time. Until then, it was a dreadful, overwhelming task. Thank you, Marivene!
Thank you, Brandy, for letting us know and for mentioning her full name. I pray for her smooth and comfortable passing, and for her safe journey to her destination. Also, praying for strength for her family during this very difficult time.
Oh gosh. So sad to hear this. Marivene’s wisdom has helped us in so many ways. I, too, have learned from her to tackle weed pulling just one bucket at a time. Until then, it was a dreadful, overwhelming task. Thank you, Marivene!
Thank you, Brandy, for letting us know and for mentioning her full name. I pray for her smooth and comfortable passing, and for her safe journey to her destination. Also, praying for strength for her family during this very difficult time.
Thanks Brandy. My daughter and I had a good cry at breakfast. We’ve never met Marivene but her comments have always meant so much to us. 65 is so young, and her thoughts about learning that God’s plan is always best really hit home. I often struggle with learning that myself. She will be missed.
What a beautiful way to view cancer and death. I pray that I have this sort of grace and dignity when it’s my time. Praying for Marivene and her family. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Marivene for sharing so much of your knowledge and wisdom with us over the years. I’ve also loved reading your comments.
Sending prayers to you and your family.
Thank you, Brandy, for letting us know. I always learned something new and interesting from Marivene’s posts. I will miss hearing from her. I’ll be keeping her and her family in my prayers. May God fill them all with His peace.
I join the rest in praying that Marivene has a peaceful passing and that her family find comfort in knowing she will be free of pain and suffering.
I learned much from her and will miss her posts.
Dear Marivene, I’ll add my voice to the chorus of thanks and appreciation for all of the wisdom you have shared over many years as part of this blog “family.” Peace be with you, my friend, and with your family. May the rest of your journey be gentle.
I am sorry to read this this afternoon. Thank you for sharing, Brandy. Marivene, you and your husband are in my thoughts.
Bless her soul. Much love.
Thank you Brandy for writing this post and updating us. I always looked for Marivene’s comments because I always learned something from her. Marivene’s family, it was evident how much she loved all of you, especially the grandchildren. Praying for Marivene and her family.
May blessings and strength be with her and hers… we shall miss her wisdom. I too put a grape leaf in my pickles because of her.
Brandy thank you for letting us know. I always read everyone’s posts but rarely comment. I will miss Marivene’s kind words and wisdom. Your blog has created a wonderful online community.
Just can’t post. Too many tears.. was so touched by her posts.
Oh Brandy, thank you for sharing this, although it is heartbreaking news. I, like everyone else, have learned so much from Marivene through all these years and will miss her posts. She has imparted such wisdom in many areas, and there is great wisdom in this, her last message, as well. Her calm and peace are great blessings. I am praying that her transition to her next life will be an easy one with strength for her husband and family. It is a testament to this wonderful blog and all its gentle readers that I am weeping for a person I never met.
Brandy, Thank you for letting us know about Marivene. I’ve been reading your blog for years and if I don’t have time to read all the comments, I would scroll through them until I found hers. I’ve missed them the past few weeks. I thought perhaps she was with ‘Lil Stuff.
She will be in my prayers and I will continue to pray for you and your family.
Thank you again for letting us know.
Oh, sweet Marivene! I envision you being enfolded in the loving arms of Jesus as he greets you on you arrival. Thank you for all you wise comments. Every week I searced for your comments, often going page by page to make sure I didn’t miss them.
I will miss Marivene, both her good sense and her humor.
Marivene, I hope your transition is painless and peaceful. I, like many other commenters, have followed your advice to pull a bucket of weeds at a time. It’s advice that could be generalized to just about any unpleasant task. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Oh, how sad! I too am a new commenter here, but have read your blog for a few years, and have come across Marivene’s comments. Like others, I’ve wondered “where she went”? But now we know as you’ve been thoughtful to inform your readers what has happened. Blessings to Marivene and family – lean into the Saviour’s arms and find your peace.
I saw your post on Facebook and knew the post here would be about Marivene. Thank-you so much for letting us know. I too would look for her comments and felt a connection with her. Once again, the community you have built here, Brandy, is amazing and so touches me to the heart.
One of my favorite comments from Marivene was how most of her long term storage for milk was in the form of hot chocolate mix. Or something to that effect. I will often think of her when I make a cup of cocoa.
I also send prayers for her and her loved ones.
Is there a way to search comments for a collection of Marivene’s helpful comments? I couldn’t find them using the search function and would love to read her comments.
Prayers for Marivene and her family
Brandy, Could you ever do one post that is simply all of Marivene’s comments? I would so love to have them all in one place and it would honor her too. I hope you can, but not if it is too much trouble for you.
I can’t even do it on the back end of the website, unfortunately.
I would have to search hundreds of thousands of comments by hand, just in the same manner that you would. It would be a huge ordeal, so unfortunately, I cannot.
Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know if you had an easier way that we do, but none of us want to add to your work load!!!
Brandy, thank you for sharing this sad news. I always enjoyed Marivene’s posts…hearing what comes in and out the the “cubby”, her holiday decorations, ripening fruit, trips back and forth to care for family, her many finds at the thrift shop, to mention just a few. As many mentioned she proved that much can be accomplished by doing it bit by bit…break a daunting project into smaller pieces. We will be praying for Marivene and her family.
I too was in tears when I read this news. Marivene was one of the commentators that I remember from my first days of reading Brandy’s blog. She always exhibited steadfast wisdom in her comments. As many others have mentioned I now think of tasks that seem overwhelming as “just one bucket” tasks. Her deep love of her family was so evident. Rest in eternal peace.
Oh Brandy…I’m so sad to hear this. I always enjoyed her comments. I hope her passing is peaceful and pain-free. Thank you for telling us.
If you are seeing this, Marivene, thank you for the many, many posts you’ve posted on Brandy’s site. I always looked forward to reading them. Much love to you and strength to your family.
Brandy, thank you for letting us know.
I’ve always enjoyed Marivene’s comments and, like many others, went out of my way to look for them. She always seemed to have so much going on at her house, in her garden. Enjoyed hearing about her ever-expanding orchard, setting (yet more) Lodgestones, and her no-nonsense approach to life. Since I also live along the Wasatch Front, I’ve appreciated her gardening wisdom for our similar climates. And as a huge coffee drinker myself (and assumed Marivene abstained), it has always made me smile when she’s mentioned stopping by Starbucks to pick up another bag of Grounds for Gardeners.
Thank you, Marivene. Go in peace.
I have feared this was the case and am so sad to be correct. I have often used the words “blog friend” when describing many whose comments and wisdom I have shared with other friends. It is time to drop the “blog” from this description. Dearest Marivene has been a friend for years, someone whose wisdom and knowledge I learn from and whose love of family warms my heart. Your family will go on knowing the love you have given and the strength you carry with you. You will be missed, friend, but I look forward to meeting you in our eternal home. Gods arms are open and waiting to gather you home.
Thank you for sharing this information with us. It was always a pleasure to read her comments. I hope you are able to pass along these comments to her family at some point. I’m sure it will bring them some joy to read all these comments praising her from the online family of readers.
Thank you for sharing this update. I found your blog many years ago. I love reading your accomplishment each week and I found myself just as excited about everyone else’s accomplishments. Marivene’s accomplishments I would search for – I loved reading about her coffee grounds hunt and her garden. This news is very sad. I think about her children and grandchildren. I hope she finds her peace.
I just read this. I’ve been in such a hectic space lately I hadn’t had the time to read up on the comments and things. I’m going to miss Marivene’s comments and am hoping she had/has a relatively painless passing. Hers were always wonderful nuggets of knowledge to read. Thanks for letting us know.
Hello everyone. I am one of Marivene’s daughters. We just wanted to let you all know that she passed away peacefully yesterday morning. She was able to read the comments on this post and shared it with us prior to her passing. She enjoyed being part of your community. We are working on compiling a list of all her posts (there were a lot….), and hope at some future date to be able to provide this to those who may be interested. Thank you so much for allowing her to share her wisdom and appreciating her contributions.
Sorry for your loss. Thank you for updating us to her passing.
I always loved her comments. I”m sure she was a blessing to all who knew her.
I am so sorry to here of Marivene’s passing. I remember the wisdom and kindness in her comments. I rejoice in the knowledge she is at her eternal home, and pray for her family at this difficult and sad time.
I’m sorry for not reading through posts sooner this week. Marivene’s wisdom and teaching will be greatly missed in this community for sure. Rest in peace dear one. May God grant me the same lovely attitude when my time on earth is coming to an end.