Marcia Lynn Holmes

Our hearts hurt with you and your family. You are in our prayers. Marcia taught us how to care, love God and always be kind. She left a piece of herself with us. May you and your family know you are not alone.

Thank you Lord for allowing me to meet someone who had a loving spirit. Marcia reached out to me through our class together. Bible Essentials For Today. She reached out to give me lots of information that I missed. That was God’s love showd to me through her. That beautiful smile and spirit will truly be missed. I will see you again.

One eulogy from the service for Marcia Holmes;

The word that comes to mind when I think of Marcia is Community. Marcia gravitated towards, and fostered, community in her life. Whether it was in the home-school community, the church community, Mason, or in our swim club community, if Marcia was there, she was THERE.

I’m Bill Copland. I met Marcia on the pool deck at Lansing Community College in the Fall of 2005. Ten-year-old Vaughn and twelve-year-old Tyler had just joined the Windemere Park WaveRunners Swim Club. That Fall, I had just added job of head coach of that program – along with my Delphinus Swim Club program.

The swim club happened to be the community she and I shared. I have coached swimming going on 50 years next year. Whether it be jr. high, high school, college, masters, or club swimming, you learn to recognize community when you see it. Not every program has it. But you sure learn to recognize it and appreciate it when it’s there.

My Delphinus program was a totally coach-owned and coach-run club that I had run for over 15 years when we met. WaveRunners was a fledgling club held together by a group of parents who saw the physical and social benefit in having an organized, physical program. Most of the families were from the Windemere Park Charter Academy. They had a parent board of interested parents, but no one who had swimming experience and their second head coach had just moved away.

Since we both used the Lansing Community College pool as our home practice facility, it was natural that we could combine forces. It didn’t take long before Tyler and Vaughn were immersed in the team, and Marcia joined the WaveRunners board. Marcia was active from the start. She was a steady influence, always thoughtful and calm with solid ideas. Always there when needed.

Being raised on a farm, she knew the value of discipline and hard work. She did not seek the spotlight. She was humble and unassuming. But she was always there, usually in the background, and always with a thoughtful take on the topic at hand.

As the programs evolved, we eventually came together with the board becoming a single booster/support organization for both teams. The teams shared pool time, coaches, and meets. Our community was strong, due in no small part to the support of that board.

While some board members came and went through the years, Marcia, along with Mary and Kathryn were the core for many years – not as a power play, but for the good of the program.

Vaughn and Tyler were both a part of the program for 8 years as swimmers and both helped coach during and after their swimming days ended. Marcia remained an important and valued asset to WaveRunners/Delphinus during that time.

I will always value and appreciate the time and effort of Marcia and that board. They were instrumental in creating one of the best communities of my coaching career. I will treasure the memories.

Bernie, on behalf of the City of Mason, we wish to express our deepest sympathy to you and your family. We cannot imagine the deep loss you are all experiencing. She certainly meant a great deal to the City of Mason and we appreciate your invitation to be a part of celebrating her life with you today.
Marcia started working for the City in the Community Development Office three years ago this month, September of 2019. She walked into a rather chaotic time and we tried to reassure her that the office was normally fairly quiet this time of year. We were so afraid she would quit, however, we quickly learned that when Marcia was presented with a challenge, she did not back down. Not only did she stay but she became the go-to expert on a variety of matters. She even stumped the permitting software company that we used, often figuring things out that they could not. She filled in at the Customer Service desk, and both Marcia and Bernie worked several of the elections. Her dedication, always striving to make sure the election results were accurate, led to her becoming an Election Chair.
Through the pandemic, Marcia found a way to get our online permit system up and running and was always available when anyone needed a hand. She quickly outgrew her role; after her first year, a new position was created for her encompassing the more complex skills of Permit Administrative Specialist, which she quickly mastered and was on track to outgrow as well. I kept telling her that my goal for her was to be ‘bored,’ but she never wanted to be bored. She would constantly take on extra tasks, usually because she knew doing so would help a coworker or customer, and she loved the challenge of figuring things out. Some days I thought she was so far in the weeds on detail that a search party might be in order, but she had her method and I was learning it was better to stand back and let her go. Marcia’s shoes cannot be filled. We are not planning to fill this position anytime soon, and because of the way she took care of setting up our system, her attention to detail, and her guidance to us, I don’t know that we ever will.
Marcia was an incredible worker. More importantly, Marcia was a friend, a confidante, someone you could turn to for encouragement, someone willing to simply listen, and someone to share a laugh with. Many, many times she would help me work through a frustrating situation. We’d talk and by the end be laughing and ready to carry on with our day. I was only one of many at the City to benefit from her kindness. Deb, Billie, Dana, Sarah, Michelle, Jacqui, Jennifer, Emily, and Kourtney (names of those there) will all tell you about a conversation with Marcia and someway they were helped by her and that their day was made better because of her.
One particular story is of Billie and Marcia. They were more than coworkers. They shared a wall between their offices and Billie would call out to Marcia with a question and Marcia, being the teacher that she was, would calmly and patiently say, “Let me think about it.” She then would come up with an idea to work through the issue. Her quiet, unassuming presence was like the rudder of a boat, steering us along towards the goal.
Along with the work, they became friends sharing stories about family, husbands, children and grandchildren, while having a Pepsi, a Coke, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. (They knew they weren’t supposed to!) It was clear that Marcia was a woman of faith and very proud of Bernie, Tyler and Vaughn. She was so proud of the recent quilt that she made for Juniper. She literally shed blood over the project slicing her finger while cutting out a pattern for a dinosaur! But she said Juniper was worth every drop of blood.
I was texting with Bernie earlier this week confirming details for today and remarked about the sunny weather after a few drizzly days. He reminded me of how much Marcia did not like cold weather. I happened to have her obituary on my screen and read the line “She loved the beauty and awe of God’s creation …,” let’s put an asterisk in there, shall we? One of my favorite conversations to have with Marcia was about snow. Oh, how I would go on about the beauty of the flakes – calm, white, glistening. She would give me that look, you know the one, and we’d go back and forth debating the ‘yeah buts’ of winter. Oh Marcia, Marcia, Marcia I would say. This winter I’ll smirk and with each snowfall think of her and smile knowing she is probably laughing at me, toasty warm right where she is.
Every day when I walk by her office, I keep thinking she’ll be back soon. Waiting for her email with the weekly report, or hearing her approach my door with yet another ‘Guess what, or, You won’t believe this,’ relaying a conversation or issue that she was working on. I know each of us has a list of moments we will miss with her. She was a true example of grace, courage, and dignity.
When I was sharing about Marcia with a friend, he directed me to a quote by Jeanette Winterson that I think is fitting:
To lose someone you love is to alter your life forever. You don’t get over it because ‘it” is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never closes. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not made anodyne by death. This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?”
Bernie, Tyler, Vaughn, to all of you, thank you for sharing your wife, your mom, your grandma, your sister, your daughter with us. She loved you all deeply, shared about joyful events in your lives and sometimes her concerns. She made a difference in our lives; she made a difference in the City of Mason. We will always be grateful to have shared time with her and the ways she made us better as people and as an organization.