Marina Miron

1946 - 2016

Marina I. Miron (Ionescu)

East Lansing, Michigan

Age 69, passed away March 24, 2016. She was born August 6, 1946, in Targoviste, Romania, to Emil and Ileana Miron.

Ms. Miron, high school Valedictorian and graduate of the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute, M.E.,1969, worked for many years as Quality Control Engineer, designing thermic and nuclear powerplants.  She arrived in America in 1991 with her young daughter, to reunite with her political refugee husband and young adult son. In Lansing, she worked as translator for Refugee Services, and later as Project Engineer at General Motors.  She worked with her husband, Ernest C. Ionescu, in the same Engine Design Powertrain group in Flint, Warren, and Pontiac, MI, retiring in 2004.

She organized benefit concerts when she heard of deep, unmet needs within the Romanian community both in Michigan and Romania. She helped organize events that raised thousands of dollars. For the building fund of the Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, MI, Ms. Miron took Mother Benedicta's mission as her own: to build a Romanian Orthodox Monastery on American soil.  Later, she heard of the need for mattress covers to protect the new mattresses donated by a foreign charity to the Children's Orphanage in her hometown of Targoviste.  The benefit concert raised the funds necessary to buy the waterproof mattress covers for all the new mattresses.  She herself found and bought the right size covers, and sent them to Romania.

We thank the Catholic Diocese of Lansing for sponsoring our family to Lansing. She passed peacefully as a guest of Mother Teresa House, with family at her bedside.  Mom regained consciousness for a few moments before passing away, and throughout this experience she taught us about extreme humility - being totally dependent on the love of those around her, while loving us unconditionally. She was truly loved, and she showed all who knew her what it meant to love: unconditionally, with fervor and passion, with fierceness and loyalty.

Predeceased by her parents Emil and Ileana Miron (Sendrea), she is survived by her husband of 47 years, Ernest C. Ionescu, her children Alex (Mihaela) Ionescu and Marina Ionescu (Matthew) Heos, her granddaughter Julia Cristiana Heos, her sister Roxana Miron, cousin Mike Miron, M.D., and nephews Dragos Rosca, Mihnea Miron, and George Miron.

The funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 28, 2016, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1701 E. Saginaw St., Lansing, followed by a Luncheon in the Great Hall of Holy Trinity, catered by The Soup Spoon. Interment will follow in Deepdale Memorial Gardens. Her family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. on Sunday, March 27th, with a 7:30 p.m. Trisagion service, at the Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel. Memorial contributions may be made to Mother Teresa House or the Holy Trinity GOC Children's Playground Fund.