Elizabeth M. Wolf

Elizabeth Mary Wolf, Age 63. She graduated into the throne room of God on March 26, 2013. Beloved wife of Richard. Loving mother of Teca (Jason) Price and stepmother of Rikanda (Donald) Weston and Robyn (Joseph) Henry. Dear sister of Andrew Paton Plummer. Also survived by numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, aunts and cousins. A Memorial Mass was held at St. Aidan Catholic Church, 17500 Farmington Rd., Livonia on Tuesday, April 2 at 9:30 AM. Gathering from 9:00 AM until time of Mass. ***UPDATE***: A Memorial Service is planned for 3:00 PM Sunday, July 7, 2013 at Community Church of Douglas followed by a Committal Service at Plummerville Cemetery, Ganges, MI with a Reception to follow at 121 Ferry St. (also known as Chase St.) in Douglas. **Please RSVP to andrewplummer1952@gmail.com for the reception and additional directions. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, 24359 Northwestern Hwy. #225, Southfield, MI 48075 Please share a memory of Elizabeth by signing her guestbook. ***************************************************** Elizabeth was born September 17, 1949 in Sparrow Hospital, Lansing Michigan. Her father, Louis F. Plummer, Jr. was teaching agriculture in nearby Bath Michigan. She joined a family of, her mother, Elizabeth (Betsy) Eddy Plummer and, older brother, Louis (Rob) F. Plummer III . Waiting expectantly were her grandparents Benjamin and Esther and Louis F. Sr. and Bertha. They are all now deceased. Elizabeth from the earliest age showed a remarkable interest, compassion, empathy and love for her family and all those she met. She was a very lively and intelligent child but often surprisingly shy with those outside her circle of family and friends. She could be bold and heroic. At about age 4 or 5 she saved her year old younger brother Andrew from drowning in Vineyard Lake. Her two brothers adored her and she loved them in return. In subsequent years she always found or made the perfect birthday or Christmas gift for her family and friends. When she was twelve she was diagnosed with juvenile onset diabetes. She already had health issues for several years without a diagnosis. This began a valiant and lifelong battle with a serious systemic disease. She was an intelligent and disciplined patient. She had to learn a lot, since health professionals often did not know as much as she in treating her disorder. She became a really good cook and amateur nutritionist. She graduated from high school , Flint Northwestern, with the Betty Crocker Homemaker award along with other scholarships and honors. Later, her friends began to call her Heloise, for her suggestions on care of the home. Her friends were life-long. Her cousin Annie Brigham was one of her first and dearest friends. She tragically died in the mid 1970s. Elizabeth's cousins and cousins children were to be very near to her heart. Although she would never have her own children, children were her primary interest in life. Elizabeth studied child development and took a BA in that discipline from Michigan State University. Part of that work was at the Merrill Palmer Institute in Detroit. On moving to Ann Arbor she would teach preschool at the Clonlara School and then work as teaching homemaker. In this job she would teach parents who abused and neglected their children what they could realistically expect from them. In this way, very non-judgmentally, she would teach parents how to care for their offspring. Elizabeth had encountered the Charismatic Renewal in college. This was a Christian renewal movement. She joined an ecumenical Christian community called The Word of God in Ann Arbor. She began her love affair with the Catholic Church. She would wait many years before she became Catholic. Her Christian community was encouraging protestants to remain in their own churches so that they might remain ecumenical and not have everyone convert. She would find great personal warmth and comfort in her home in the Catholic church. At this point, Elizabeth saved her younger brother's life for the second time. She invited him to visit her in her Christian community. Instead of drifting off in a divergent spiritual path, he rededicated his life to Jesus Christ. Her family were not the only people she nurtured and brought into the family of Christ. Her helping reflexes were always primed and ready. She was an incredibly good listener. She had an amazing memory for personal details in what she heard. While a member of the Presbyterian Church, she was ordained a deacon. The church asked her to travel on a mission to Europe. There she studied communities of reconciliation - Cross of Nails Centers based in the Cathedral of Coventry England. She would meet and be inspired by the founder of Taize, Brother Roger. Taize is an ecumenical community concerned with reconciliation. In 1988 she visited her Aunt Margaret Messerer and her Uncle Don in Hawaii to recover from surgery. There, she met and was courted by Richard Wolf. He was a chaplain's assistant in the Army. She worked during this time at the Kawaiahao Montessori pre-school in Honolulu. After a brief courtship, Elizabeth and Rick were married in a beautiful garden of a house owned by the Reformed Church, on Tantalus Drive overlooking Honolulu. The Wolf's would live in Hawaii, Colorado Springs, and Germany. On retiring from the Army they would move to Mount Pleasant, Michigan where Richard would finish his BA. Next they moved to Hamtramck where he took a masters degree in social work. Both Elizabeth and her husband Richard worked for a Detroit program called Pact a program of Wayne State University. This work involved them in social work with parents of abused and neglected children. Elizabeth was very involved in the care of her aging and beloved parents Lou and Betsy. If she was not physically present, she was on the phone, with doctors and care workers. She used the skills of her home design course to create a wheel chair accessible bathroom for her parents. She helped with the interior design of their home with her eye and attention to aesthetics. She would use her skills on setting up her own home that she and Richard bought in Livonia, MI. Richard worked out of Detroit Suburbs as a truck driver for J.B. Hunt company. The last few years of Elizabeth's life were filled with challenging health issues. She was never heard to complain about her circumstances. She had a heroic attitude that always looked for God's grace in every situation. Her social worker at the dialysis clinic gave her a psych test. She asked, "How do you do it? How do you have the best attitude in this place?" She replied, "Grace of God." Among her concerns was not just her health, she never neglected her family and friends. She always prayed for the best for her husband, brother, spiritual children, step children, aunts, cousins, friends and just about anybody she met. All of us will miss her, but "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares [us], and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" Hebrews 12:1 Funeral Home: R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home and Cremation Services 15451 Farmington Rd. Livonia, MI US 48154