Marian Judith Daniels, age 83 years, of Raritan Township, NJ, died peacefully at home on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, surrounded by h her husband, Jack, and her loving children, Brian, Mark, Lori and Steven.

Marian was a loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother, a devoted spouse, a voracious reader, a talented cook, a knitter of many sweaters, a lover of cats and dogs alike and one of the most amazing people we’ve ever known. She will be missed dearly by her extended family and by the many other people whose lives she touched.

Marian was born in 1940 and was adopted at birth by two wonderful young parents, Nancy and Al Taub.  Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, she had a full and loving childhood.  As a family, they shared many adventures – touring the country, visiting national parks, skiing, traveling to Florida and spending time at their house in Lake Mohegan.  Through eighth grade, Marian studied at the Brooklyn Jewish Center where she was a talented student who developed a deep and abiding love of books. She learned to play the piano, which she did beautifully.

In 1950, Al, Nancy and Marian decided to spend a summer at Champlain Colony in Crown Point, NY, a bungalow colony in the Adirondack mountains frequented by Jewish teachers from New York City.  This proved to be a fateful decision. While at Champlain Colony, Marian met a handsome young man named Jack Daniels who would be the love of her life and her husband of 64 years.

Jack and Marian both attended Tilden High School where they became high school sweethearts.  After graduation, they both attended Brooklyn College where Marian earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s Degree in Education.

On December 19, 1959, Marian and Jack were married.  In 1961, after Jack’s stint in the army, Marian gave birth to twins, Mark and Brian, and in 1962 Lori arrived.  They were blessed with another son named David in 1966, but sadly he passed away at only three months old.  Marian gave birth to Steven in 1967 and the family was complete!

Starting out with twin boys and a young daughter close behind, Marian and Jack’s life together was a blur of cloth diapers and glass baby bottles.  In 1963, they moved to Far Rockaway and shared a home on Dunbar Street with Marian’s parents, Al and Nancy.  Spending summers in Crown Point and later Lake Luzerne and then Crown Point again, and the rest of the year in Far Rockaway, they built a home and a family together filled with love and lots and lots of activity.

After Steven was school age, Marian returned to work as a teacher. At elementary schools in East New York and East Flatbush, she worked as a remedial reading resource teacher for more than 12 years.  She was so devoted to her work that she bought sets of books for all her students at her own expense. She impacted the lives of countless students, teaching them to read, sharing her love of books and instilling in them her love of learning.

Aside from her career, Marian’s life revolved around the four kids and their many activities, as well her life with Jack.  She was always there to support the kids, as a den mother for Steven’s cub scout troop, driving Mark and Brian to wrestling meets and swim meets (along with their many teammates), attending Lori’s swim meets and clarinet recitals, and in countless other ways.  Marian was the glue that made the family work.  After Nancy passed away in 1980, Marian became the sole cook for our family of seven.  She prepared every meal with love.  Simply put, she took care of each and every one of us.

During summers spent in the Adirondacks, Marian enjoyed sitting on the beach, swimming, joining the family for boat rides and occasionally even water skiing.  There were nights with friends and lots of time spent playing games with the kids and later the grandkids.

Throughout all of this, Marian read literally thousands of books.  By our estimate, she read roughly two to three books per week for a period of at least 50 years (which equates to between 5,200 and 7,800 books in total). She didn’t just read books – she devoured them.  And she could speak in detail about each one.  When she started to be plagued with illness later in life, the staff of the local library cared for her so much that they prepared a care package of books for her composed of authors they knew she loved.

Meanwhile, Marian knitted seemingly thousands of sweaters  (some of which she actually finished).  Her skill and attention to detail were impressive, and we all enjoyed the finished products – hats, scarves, sweaters, and more!

Marian was incredibly proud of her children, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren – and with good reason because she was so instrumental in shaping their personalities and instilling in them the qualities they needed to succeed as people. Brian is a successful business owner, owning surf shops in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and New York, as well as a surfboard factory in Hawaii.  Together with his girlfriend and partner Akko, he is helping to raise her son Keii.  Mark became a cardiologist, and has practiced for many years in Bellingham, Washington. Together with his wife, Molly, they raised four wonderful grandchildren: Ginger, Zach, Melanie and Jeremy. Lori became a chef and later a drug and alcohol counselor.  With her husband Jay, she brought three amazing grandchildren into the family:  Sam, Alex and Nanci. Steven became a lawyer, practicing corporate law in Wilmington, Delaware and New York City.  Steven and his former wife, Gill, added two grandchildren to the family, Melissa and Jamie, and Steven’s fiancée and partner, Lisa, is expecting and will bring another grandson into the family later this year (unfortunately he won’t get to meet his incredible grandma).  Sam and his former wife Stephanie brought the first grandchild, Eliza. Al and his wife Diana brought another two great grandchildren into the world:  Arielle and Audrey. And Nanci and her husband, Mark, brought another great grandchild into the world:  Sylvia.  Marian was incredibly impactful in the lives of all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and the love we have all expressed for her at this difficult time – and the stories we all bring up with relish when thinking of her – stand as testament to the wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother she was.

Marian truly was a wonderful and special person.  She was bright, thoughtful and loved to have conversations with friends and family.  She could talk for hours about a range of subjects (political and otherwise) and she was an attentive and caring listener.  Marian was a loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother, a passionate teacher, a creator of things, and a wry and mischievous observer of the world. Marian was a teacher and a sage. She loved beautiful things and surrounded herself with all that reminded her of the long and lovely life she lived.

Marian was a sweet and sensitive soul.  We know she is resting peacefully now, having filled her days with joy and knowledge, love and laughter. We love her very much and will miss her for the rest our lives.

Since this history cannot possibly capture all the things she was to each of us, here are some things we each remember about Marian:

• Waiting up on the couch when we got home (and occasionally turning a blind eye to our shenanigans)
• Typing up our book reports and papers when we got them done too late to do them ourselves
• Promising to hem our pants if we left them on the “white chair” and never quite getting them done
• Spending time with the kids and grandkids and their many friends at the “crunchy house” doing puzzles and playing games like 500 Rummy, solitaire, Scrabble and Yahtzee
• Hovering over the dinner table and providing a real time inventory of all available items – identifying which ones were “nice”
• Ruling the kitchen with an iron fist
• Muenster cheese
• Lots of pepperoni and crackers
• Meat and cheese roll-ups on the “meat dishes”
• Playing Mexican Train at Steve and Lisa’s beach house (and cheating!)
• Rainy days in Crown Point playing games
• Square dancing in the Social Hall
• Gifting favorite books to the grandkids
• Playing with Duplo blocks
• Muffins cut in quarters and toasted with butter
• Challah (pronounced Chally for some reason)
• Careful slicer and spreader of spreads and avid user of Saran wrap
• Sweet and special mother and grandmother
• Setting the table – forks on the left and knives on the right; or was it the other way around?
• Napkins laid for holidays past, hagaddahs passed around on Passover and kippahs imprinted with milestones of family history
• Gin rummy around the table as dinner is put away and coffee brewing
• Al and Nanci doing dishes as dessert finds its way to the table
• Chanukah cards and candle lightings, covering our eyes for Shabbat as we bow our heads in prayer
• She was the queen of couches and library books
• The smell of leather and tobacco not smoked in ages
• Slender fingers on slim cigarettes, 60 minutes on Sunday evenings as the sun set on Lake Champlain
• Sitting on the beach with the grandkids as they frolicked and played in the shallow end, dove off the dock and heard stories from the Murphy’s
• Her love for food shopping and knitting, travel and reading
• Vermont, antiquing and her love for her husband (Grandpa Jack)
• Cross country road trips and watching her grandchildren flourish
• BOUNDLESS PATIENCE AND LOVE FOR US ALL!!!!

Graveside services officiated by Rabbi Eric Cohen will take place on Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 11:30 a.m. at Beth Moses Cemetery, 1500 Wellwood Avenue, Babylon, NY 11704. Everyone is kindly asked to gather at the main office at 11:15 a.m. and proceed to the gravesite together.

Shiva will be celebrated at the family home on Sunday, April 7, 2024, from 1:00-6:00 p.m. with services at 6:00 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday, April 8th and 9th, 2024, from 4:00-7:00 p.m., with services both evenings at 6:00 p.m. All are welcome.

Arrangements are under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.

You are encouraged to visit Marian’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a candle of hope, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of her life.

As is custom in the Jewish faith, no flowers please; memorial contributions will be announced on this page once finalized by the family.

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Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”

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