Marcia Mae Slaughter

Marcia Mae Slaughter, 87, of Benson, Minn., died Sunday, November 22, 2020, at Meadow Lane Nursing Home, under Hospice care. A graveside service will be held Saturday, November 28, 2020 at 1 PM in the Benson City Cemetery. Memorials are preferred to Trinity Lutheran Church of Benson and Rice Hospice.

Marcia Mae Slaughter was born to Marjorie (Skogland) and Emil Peterson of Murdock on March 1, 1933. Marcia was the fifth child of six, including Vivian (Sig) Stockland of Lake Lillian, Ina (Ardell) Magnuson of Murdock, Ruth (Eli) Stockland of Pennock, Donald (Shirley) Peterson of Burlington, WI and Blanche (Willard) Slaughter, Willmar, MN.

After Marcia graduated high school, she accepted a job as a live-in caregiver to a family in Willmar. At that time men in the area were getting drafted and her neighbor friend was one of them. He met a young man in the service named Palmer Slaughter, who he thought was the perfect match for his childhood friend, Marcia. They started writing to each other and were destined to be married when Palmer returned home.

Palmer and Marcia were united in marriage on February 19, 1955 in Murdock. Their marriage was blessed with five children, Marlene (Mick) Wrobleski of rural DeGraff, Randall (Laura) Slaughter of Benson, Timothy (Lisa) Slaughter, rural Benson, Kathleen (DeWayne) Hanson of Cold Spring and Debbie Slaughter of Benson.

Marcia was Palmer’s partner until the end. Where Palmer went, Marcia was there. After the couple left the farm and moved into an apartment, different adventures began for them. As usual, however, Marcia was content with very simple things. She enjoyed a trip to Family Dollar and developed a little bit of an obsession over solar powered figurines. I don’t know who introduced the first one to her, but that was an addiction that couldn’t be stopped. At times you would wonder if the entire room would start moving if she had one more dancing daisy.

Palmer was a funny guy and was always teasing Marcia, like when she was walking to their car after a visit to one of the kids and he’d be poking Marcia with his cane saying, “C’mon MAMA, hurry up.”

Marcia always made sure her family was properly fed. Food equaled love in our home, and boy were we loved!! I can never remember a time that mom wasn’t baking bread, or a pot of homemade soup, boiling potatoes, a big pot of goulash, her famous chow main hot dish; all simple foods and yet so special when Mom made them.

Mother could be a stinker, too. To anyone who didn’t really know her, she appeared to be a sweet, little old lady. When our father had been transferred to the Glenwood Nursing Home, we were all worried about Mom and her adapting to assisted living in Meadow Lane, for the first time without Palmer. Our worries were for nothing. She bloomed at that time. She had developed very good friends and when I would come to see her she seemed genuinely happy. One day there was a grumpy old curmudgeon who was grumbling on about something and I asked Mom, what’s he so crabby about?” She said, “Oh he’s always crabbing about something. He’s so darn mean. He’s looking for his glasses.” then she told me to come with her and sitting in a potted plant stuck into the dirt, were those glasses! I said “Mother! Smiling of course, she said, that’ll keep him busy for a while.”

When this Pandemic hit, I was naively thinking we will only have to worry about it for a short time. And then we could no longer see our loved ones. Mother had lost in a five month period her husband, who she loved with all her being, and her granddaughter. It was just a few months after that the world stopped turning. At our last gathering, Mother didn’t speak a lot, but sat and watched all of us kids laughing together as the family she and her one and only love had created. Still obviously grieving, but she still had family time.

Our mother passed away on November 22, 2020. But she had started dying the day she could no longer interact with family. I’m not making a statement that Meadow Lane did anything wrong, although my mother should never have contracted the virus, what I’m saying is that Covid itself is just horrible and it’s changing every part of our lives. So many people have said to me that it feels like we aren’t really living, we’re just existing in the hopes to get through another day. Mother was done wanting to get through another day. Covid helped make that day come sooner for her. Her family wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but Mother was ready to say hello again to the rest of her family waiting for her.

Marcia will forever be missed and is survived by her five children and grandchildren: Michael Wrobleski of DeGraff; Michelle (Doug) Gunderson of Benson; Mark (Molly) Wrobleski of Rosemount; Matt (Danielle) Wrobleski of Alexandria; Mitchell Wrobleski of Benson; Christopher (Ashley) Lassiter of of Papillion, NE; Amanda (Derek) Bluhm of Clara City; Bob (Brooke) Slaughter of Benson; Abigail Callahan of Cold Spring, MN; Charlie Gocha of Benson; Lilly Slaughter of Benson and several great grandchildren.

Our continued job as her family is to look for those things that make us think pleasant thoughts of both of our parents. For me I will never look at a packet of ketchup or jelly without thinking “we should take mom to Sandy’s to stock up on more condiments.” We can’t make new memories with them, but we sure can laugh about the old.

Marcia was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Palmer, all her sisters and brother and her granddaughters: Maisey Mae Callahan, Emma Marjorie Hanson, Kayla Wrobleski and Michaela Sexton. We hope for a wonderful reunion.