Marie Sweeney died suddenly on February 17th, 2025. She was 84 years old.

Marie grew up in Newark, Delaware and was the second of six children of the late Henry and Ethel Mason Blomquist. She graduated from Newark High School. As president of the Newark Future Nurses Club, she organized hospital visits and tours to help students learn more about the nursing profession. She went on to attend the University of Maryland School of Nursing, but her training was cut short after her wedding due to a sexist policy that prohibited married women from continuing their education. Despite this, she remained committed to caregiving, devoting herself to caring for loved ones in their final moments. She provided compassionate care for her mother-in-law, husband, and mother, nursing them in her home and attending to their medical and daily needs.

Over the years, Marie held a variety of interesting jobs. She worked as a bank teller in New Jersey and often joked that she "missed all the action" when the bank was robbed on her day off. She also ran a family farm for many years, producing fruit, vegetables, and, of course, Jersey tomatoes which deserve their own category. She seemed to enjoy lawncare and she spent summers in her straw hat on her riding mower. Later, she played a vital role in her son's business, Integrity Carpet Care, where she handled scheduling, answered phones, organized promotional materials, and even went out on jobs. With her warm and inviting voice, she enjoyed speaking with customers and making connections. Though she worked at Integrity Carpet Care the longest, the job that changed her life the most was a summer job at the Newark Swimming Pool—where she met her husband, Joseph Sweeney, the owner of the pool. Marie was proud of her marriage and remained devoted to her husband after he passed away in 1995. She joked that Joe asked her to marry him multiple times before she said yes, including on the first day they met at the swimming pool. After they married, they moved to New Jersey and built a house together on their 11-acre property where she lived for the rest of her life. She had a real desire to be a mother. The night they got engaged she told Joe she wanted 13 children. They ended up having four kids, two boys and two girls she liked to say, who had many adventures on the family farm.

Marie enjoyed travel and often reminisced about a special trip to Finland with her father and sister, Louise. During the journey, their plane had to make an unexpected emergency landing in England. Seizing the opportunity, Marie and her sister amused themselves by collecting and eating all the olives they could find from the airplane's bar. On her honeymoon, she and her husband took a road trip to California, making a point to stop in every state in the continental U.S. that she had yet to visit. In 2004, knowing how close she was to reaching all 50 states, her daughter Debbie and son David took her to Alaska, where she experienced a helicopter ride, went salmon fishing, stood on a glacier, and marveled at countless caribou. Though she never made it to Hawaii, she insisted this was by choice, claiming she "much preferred the Caribbean," which was closer and easier to visit. St. Thomas became a favorite destination, where she spent many trips with her mother, sister, children, and grandchildren, truly at peace sitting on the beach and gazing at the bright blue water.

Marie loved the beach, which she called the "seashore." She spent many summer days in Sea Isle, New Jersey with her family when her children were young and again when her grandchildren were growing up. Marie also had a deep fondness for Ca Hill, a small mountain area in Pennsylvania. For years, her family traveled there together to hike, visit the Forksville General Store, canoe, and swim in the water. When her children were young, she and Joe would take long drives through the area, and Marie would often ask to stop so she could "visit" with people—despite not knowing them. She would knock on doors, introduce herself, and more often than not, be invited in. Through these spontaneous visits, she came to know the stories of families, houses, and the local community. Her favorite time to visit was in the fall to admire the changing leaves, and she especially enjoyed attending the region's annual Flaming Foliage Festival—even though she could never quite pronounce it.

Marie was a devoted member of the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church and attended all her life. When she was younger, she hosted countless gatherings for members of the congregation which always involved large games of volleyball, duck-duck goose, and her favorite "bop." She often opened her home to members of the church needing a place to stay sometimes for months at a time. Marie also combined faith and family, turning church events into family adventures. She enjoyed attending the June meetings, once making a cross-country journey from New Jersey to South Dakota in 1986, visiting Yellowstone along the way with all her children and her 9-month-old granddaughter.

As a child, Marie was an active member of 4-H, an experience that remained a cherished part of her life. Even as she grew older, she would fondly recall the songs from her time in the club and often reminisced about her prize-winning cheesecake. This love of nature stuck with her and Marie found joy in gardening, eagerly planting flowers each spring. A small patch of daffodils grows along the edge of the woods on her property, and if they bloomed in March, her husband would lovingly say they were for her birthday. Though Marie's birthday month was shared with her husband, two of her children, a grandchild, and a great-grandchild, a connection she loved to mention. She took particular delight in the fact that she was born on March 13th (and turned 13 on Friday the 13th) and that her husband's birthday was March 31st.

To her eight grandchildren, Marie was known as Mommom—a title and role she cherished. She hosted weekly sleepovers for her four middle grandchildren, where everyone piled into her room for the night. She also lived with her youngest two grandchildren, becoming a constant presence in their daily lives. Marie filled their childhoods with adventure and simple joys, leading Halloween tours through graveyards, driving them on her four-wheeler through the woods to visit the cows, spending countless hours together in the pool, and taking them to Dippy's for ice cream—always ordering one scoop of peach and one scoop of coffee on a cone. She enjoyed going on drives where the grandchildren were in charge of the directions, sometimes even getting lost in all of the twists and turns. She also had a love for board games, especially Scrabble, and took great joy in introducing her grandchildren to the game. Finally, she had a vivid imagination and instead of reading bedtime stories she made them up—sometimes they were so complex the stories had to be told over multiple nights. She was always sure to greet her grandchildren when they came into the house, and to see them off by standing outside and waving as their car pulled all the way down her long lane—never turning to go inside until their cars were out of sight.

Marie was quirky, silly, and goofy. These words seem the same, but she really was all three. She called her physical therapist her "PT Cruiser," bought herself a four-wheeler for her 60th birthday, and had a habit of wearing false teeth or a pig's snout when meeting her children's significant others—just to keep things interesting. She also had a signature way of ending phone calls, always leaving the person on the other end with a task: "Be sure to give him a bop on the nose" or "Give her a tap on the belly button." Then, without fail, she'd follow up with, "Will you really do it? "During one long distance phone call, as Marie enjoyed an ice cream bar, her sister Linda mentioned how she wished she could have one too. Marie playfully decided to mail one to her. Her favorite gift to give was just as unconventional—toilet paper with single dollar bills wrapped inside. Year after year, it made her laugh to watch people pull money out of toilet paper.

Marie is survived by her sisters, Louise Eastburn and Elaine Blomquist McDowell and their families; her four children, Brian Sweeney, David Sweeney, Donna Sweeney, and Deborah Sweeney-Moore; her son-in-law, Bill Moore; her daughter-in-law, Olga Sweeney; her grandchildren, Stephanie Bonnes (Andrew Stinson), Nikita Iltchenko (Alicia Briegel), Tatianna Sweeney, Joseph Sweeney, Adrianna Sweeney, Daniel Sweeney, Kristen Sweeney, and David Sweeney; and her great-grand-children, Eloise Bonnes and Sylvia Stinson.

A viewing followed by services will be held at the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church Friday, February 28, 2025 at 10:00 am.  2038 Pleasant Valley Rd, Newark, DE 19702.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to Delaware 4-H, a program Marie was actively involved in as a child. https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1852544