Alice Marie Martin peacefully departed this life on the afternoon of November 3, 2026 surrounded by her son, Lou, his wife Cheryl, her grandsons Anthony and Andrew and her sister Elaine.

Alice was born at home in Detroit on April 22, 1936, to Tony & Mary Kostrzewa and lived first on Livernois Avenue and then on Clifton on Detroit’s west side. She attended Hanneman Elementary School and Chadsey High School, with her best friend Joyce (Maletski) Schaffer, who she met in kindergarten. She loved to hide in the branches of the big apple tree in the backyard where she couldn’t be seen, but which allowed her to see into everyone else’s yard and monitor the neighborhood happenings. (Amazingly, as an adult, Alice wasn’t one to sit at the window, peeking out at the world. She was out living life!) Growing up, one of Alice’s favorite places to go was our Grandma’s grocery store on Livernois Avenue in Detroit. It was a true extended family operation, with our Uncle Stan and Aunt Stella living with grandma in the rear living quarters and another Uncle (Ray) and Aunt (Kathryn) living on the second floor. Alice never wavered in her feelings that our Grandma Kryzkowski was the kindest, nicest person she ever knew (and we are all certain that Alice modeled herself after Grandma).

At Chadsey High School Alice was a talented thespian, starring in ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ and ‘Heaven Can Wait’, which allowed her to express her many talents and her natural beauty. Reviewing a talent show performance of the Charleston, danced with her girlfriend, Joyce, Alice said she was ‘probably awful, but I loved performing’. (We used to note, as the years went by, that if you danced with Alice, she always led! But she was such a good dancer, it was easy to follow her. She adored dancing!)

As if by fate, Alice met the “charming, funny, handsome, sexy, wonderful-to-be-with” love of her life, Louis P. Martin, Jr., on a blind date set up by a mutual friend, whose intention was to end up with Lou by the end of the evening. An idea that Alice quickly quashed. Three months after that first date, Alice knew that Lou was the one for her (even though she was only 16 when they met).

Alice and Lou enjoyed a magical courtship and were married at St. Luke’s Catholic Church on March 2, 1956. (Alice’s mom made the wedding gown AND baked the gorgeous 5 tiered, swan and rose encrusted wedding cake.) Their wedding was a traditional Polish celebration, with an early morning accordionist, Mass at St. Luke’s; a wedding breakfast, and, well, we’ll let Alice tell the rest: Here’s an email Lou found that Alice wrote on her wedding anniversary in 2018:

“Hi Family,

Lou and I would have been married 51 years today! Seventeen years definitely was not enough.

We had such a happy wedding - a 10:00AM service at church followed by breakfast in the hall for everyone who was invited to the wedding. We had every kind of weather imaginable: sunshine, snow, cold, drizzle, overcast. We didn’t care, we were so in love. After breakfast we went to my mom’s house. Lou had a headache. His best man, Walter, who was a doctor, gave him a neck massage to help him. Then Lou went back to his house to take a nap. I stayed at my mom’s. Isn’t that funny.

About 6:00 we went back to the hall for dinner and dancing. We had such fun greeting our guests and talking to everyone. When we would dance together, Lou and I would just laugh and smile and tease each other. It was great. The only hitch was that a different band showed up than the one we hired and they weren’t very good. Oh well. We made do.

At the end of the wedding, as we were getting ready to leave, my mom asked us if we would drive a couple back to my mom’s house ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT! Isn’t that hilarious? So we did, and then we drove to our apartment on Schaefer Road. And you’ve all heard the story - the first thing we did was open the envelopes and county how much money we received! Well, we needed to know if we could afford to go on our honeymoon to Florida. We could - and we also got enough for a down payment on a house. I think it was about $3,000. Today that would hardly pay for a vacation.

The next day we showed up at my mom’s to attend the ‘party’ (I don’t know how to spell the Polish word) (*it’s poprawiny, sister!) that is thrown after the wedding. All the leftover food from the wedding was brought to my mom’s and many relatives came over to eat and visit. Lou and I came because we wanted something to eat before we left on our honeymoon. We had no food at our place, so it was for purely selfish reasons that we attended; isn’t that awful? Makes me laugh to think about it. Geez, we were so young and so in love. We said goodbye to everyone, and that afternoon we started our drive to Florida … and the beginning of a very happy marriage.

Aaaah, such good memories.

Love, Mom/Alice”

Alice and Lou made it to Florida on full tummies and they surely enjoyed their honeymoon because on December 26, 1957, daughter Sharon Marie was born. Sharon was followed in quick succession by Linda Marie, November 30, 1959, Patricia Marie on April 18, 1961 and then Louis Anthony on April 23, 1963. The family was complete; Lou had been an only child and his dream was to have a big, loving family and enjoy life with the woman of his dreams.

During Sharon’s infancy, Alice and Lou built their dream home on Cambourne in Dearborn Heights, sharing photos (ofof every stage of construction.

As Lou began his career at Ford Motor Engineering One as a mechanical engineer, Alice focused her talents on her children and her home. Alice took after her dad - she could make, fix and do anything, Plumbing, electrical work, roofing, - nothing was beyond her abilities. She would puzzle out any problem and figure out a way to fix it. Alice was an accomplished cook and baker - her family still goes into raptures when describing her bread, her pies, her spaghetti, her chrusciki (angel’s wings) - the list is literally endless. Everything she touched became a delicious meal for the family to gather around and enjoy. Her love of baking was passed on to her grandson, Anthony. He shares his grandma’s passion and ability for cooking, challenging himself to recreate grandma’s dishes and baked goods (sometimes with recipes, often without) to perfection. Alice and Anthony spent many, many happy hours in her toasty, aromatic kitchen, cooking and baking together.

Alice and Lou had 17 idyllic years together when God called Lou home in January, 1974. In shock and grief and with 4 young children to care for at age 37, Alice returned to school, earned an associate’s degree and landed a very good job in the legal department of the Ford Motor Company where she worked until she retired at age 65. In that time, 3 of her children finished college, all got married and 5 grandchildren were born: Alex, Nick, Lena, Anthony and Andrew - the loves of her life (after Lou, of course). Lena just earned a PhD in nursing; Anthony is fluent in Japanese (and cooking!) and Andrew is a very talented graphic designer. Alice was SO proud of each of them.

In a personal diary, Alice wrote about her life and her faith and her family. In the section “In My Life, I Want To:” she wrote - “Do as much for my family as I am capable of doing. And I want to always have something to laugh about. Also, I hope God grants me many years on earth so I can watch my children and grandchildren grow up.” In our estimation, 90 years was not nearly enough for our darling mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.

Alice had some words of wisdom for new grandparents: “Marvel at the miracle of a new human being being created. Afterward, just love them to pieces. It’s so much fun! Revel in the joy of being a grandparent. Grandkids don’t care if you’re rich or poor, fat or thin, pretty or ugly - what a relief! - they just LOVE you!”

Growing up a ‘cradle Catholic’, Alice found her way back to her faith in the past decades. She wrote: “Faith is a very personal matter. It’s each person’s quest to find God. I believe each of us travels that road alone and yet we are all on the same journey; to find a connection with something we know exists but must define in our own terms. I don’t like labels. Labels separate us. Born anywhere else on earth, I could have been any religion. But inside we are all creations of an unconditional love.”

“Love one another as I have loved you” was her favorite Scripture passage. “It all comes down to that, doesn’t it? Unconditional love. If we all truly lived that way, heaven would be here on earth.”

Alice lived, loved and loved some more. Her store of love was endless. We still feel it. We miss having her here with us, but know that we will be reunited with the amazing, wonderful, compassionate, generous, LOVING Alice that we were truly blessed to know while she was here.

We take forward with us the beautiful life that Alice led. Her laugh, her smile, and the amazing stories she told us wrapped us with the warm light of love she so tenderly told us our presence brought her. Alice’s strengths were innumerable, and we are so grateful to have seen every single one of them. Her talent to organize and keep her life (and subsequently ours) perfectly in order never ceased to amaze us! It is with all the love in our hearts, and then some, that we have the honor to write so much about this wonderful wife, mother, sister, grandmother… and never having enough room to truly describe what she meant to us.

Visitation Tuesday from 4-8pm with a 6:30 pm Rosary at the John N. Santeiu & Son, Inc., 1139 N. Inkster Road, Garden City (between Ford Road and Cherry Hill). In state Wednesday at 10 am until time of Mass at 10:30 am at St. Linus Catholic Church, 25500 Hass (between Ford & Warren, west of Gulley)

Memorial contributions may be made to Residential Hospice or St. Linus Catholic Church.