Mary Therese Bugai

Mary Therese (Couturier) Bugai passed away peacefully at age 91, on December 21, 2023, while in the loving care of her children and the warm embrace of the Holy Spirit at the home of her daughter, Jennifer, in Traverse City, MI. In Mary's own words, she was ready to meet the Lord and "hoped He would take her in". Those who knew her have no doubt she is now at peace in His presence.
Mary was born in 1932 into the ever-growing family of Leon and Edith Couturier. Leon and Edith had 13 children that grew up as a close family in a modest home on the family farm near West Bay in Leelanau County. Mary and her 12 siblings would go on to marry and have large families themselves. It was the grounding in the Catholic faith, deeply instilled by her parents, that would set a foundation that guided Mary for the rest of her life.
Mary was still a teenager when she met her future husband, Henry Frank Bugai from Cedar, MI. Mary and Henry met while working together at Dill's restaurant in Old Towne on Union Street, where he would become a celebrated cook and she waitressed. With the blessings of her parents, Mary and Hank were married on September 10, 1949, at Immaculate Conception Church in Traverse City.
In 1962, Mary and Henry made a home with their six children on East 12th Street in Traverse City. Their home was only a block away from Saint Francis Church and school, so Mary felt it was a perfect location to raise their children. Besides a Catholic upbringing, Mary ensured her children were raised with a strong work ethic. Some shared family chores would become fond memories for her children, including the summer cherry picking and annual canning production that filled the basement shelves with Mason jars containing homemade jams, fruits, vegetables and pickles.
Mary and her husband Henry raised their family during an era when their TV was black & white and "going to grandma and grandpa's house" on the weekends was a way of life. The frequent family gatherings at the Couturier farmhouse were some of Mary's fondest memories with her children. Leon and Edith often had up to 30 or 40 family members visiting on any given Sunday. Everyone brought food and no one went hungry no matter how many showed up. There were always lively discussions about religion and politics, and of course, card playing and beer drinking, followed by more card playing and singing the family's favorite tunes. And, if you were lucky, you might catch Mary in the mood to sing one of her rousing renditions of "Frankie and Johnny" (she killed it every time).
One side-note in Mary's family lore is the wedded union of Mary's sister, Audrey, to Henry's brother, Alois, introducing a second bridge between the Couturier and Bugai families that brought the families even closer. Mary's and Audrey's combined 11 children were "double-cousins" who regularly bumped into each other regardless of whether they were visiting Grandma Couturier or Grandma Bugai.
Mary absolutely loved playing cards her whole life (a blessing, or a curse, that she and Henry passed on to their children), but she did have a unique disdain for the game of "Hearts" (she always took it way too personally when she would get stuck with the Queen of Spades). To this day, when two or more of her children gather, they know the Lord hears their prayers, and there is going to be a card game going on between them!
Mary's home on 12th Street later grew into an oasis for her children and grandchildren. Being centrally located, and conveniently next to the parade route and festivities during Cherry Festival, her home was a pitstop along the way even if it wasn't the destination for the day. Family and friends would frequently stop by to chit-chat for a while or play a quick game of cards. Mary's door was always open and she shared whatever she had to eat with her guests. One tradition was the big pot of soup that everyone enjoyed after "The Cherry Royale Parade" each year. Another cherished tradition for her children and grandchildren was gathering every Halloween after the children were done trick-or-treating. They would all sit around, sort and compare candy totals, while enjoying a big pot of homemade stew.
Mary loved her faith and the Catholic Church. After her children were raised, she enjoyed spending her free time reading and studying about the Catholic faith, and was actively involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement to deepen her relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. She loved traveling to visit various religious sites, and always looked forward to joining her friends for a retreat up to Petoskey, MI. The highlight of her life was making a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to the site of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother. She had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother and St. Padre Pio, praying the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet daily, and spent many hours in prayer in the Adoration Chapel at St. Francis Church. She taught CCD classes to young children and sponsored adults coming into her faith. She was also a Lector and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.
Following employment at Dill's, Mary held other waitressing and bar tending positions in local establishments, followed by cashiering for Maxbauer's Market. Despite her many fond memories in all these jobs (including meeting Henry at Dill's, and working with her two sons at Maxbauer's), it was her final position, as a housekeeper at The Pavilions near Munson Hospital, that gave her employment a sense of purpose and meaning. While there, Mary parlayed her housekeeping role into a unique opportunity to live and share her Christian values, and she intimately touched the lives of many of the aging adults being cared for there by praying with them, listening to their stories, and sharing her own.
After Henry's death in 2004, Mary lived in the family home for another 13 years. In 2017, she moved in with her eldest child, Jennifer, where she spent her final years. Her daughter Jean Anne lived nearby, and was a frequent visitor. Mary enjoyed board games, playing cards (insisting on 50 cents a game), holiday parties, and visits from her children and ever-increasing progeny who always seemed to be outnumbered by the pack-du-jour of fluffy white dogs roaming the halls. Jennifer's dog-sitting business and pet Maltese dogs provided an ample source of company for Mary with whom she loved to share a couch, chair, or bed during quick naps, and also sharing bites from her plate with them much to her daughter's consternation! Those were good years for Mary, and Jennifer felt blessed to be able to live with her mother during that time.
For her son Alan, being with his mother in her final moments was equally a blessing to him, since it was an opportunity for him to return the special love and care that Mary had bestowed upon him on many occasions while growing up. Alan recalls, "My fondest memories of Mom were the numerous hours we spent together throughout my many surgeries for multiple health issues. Even when I had my fifth heart operation at 30 years old, Mom was at my bedside in recovery. Being able to be with Mom and care for her on that particular night was no coincidence to me, it was an answer to my prayer."
Mary is preceded in death by: husband, Henry Frank Bugai; parents, Leon and Edith (Belanger) Couturier; siblings, Thelma (Celestine) Schaub, Geraldine (Peter) Moldenhauer, Judy (William) Howard, Robert Couturier, Orpha (James) Taylor, Jaqueline (William) Tooley, Michael (Van) Couturier, and Patricia (James) Otto; grandsons, Thomas Bugai and Michael Skipski.
Mary is survived by: her children, Jennifer Sepell, Jean Anne (Gary) Henning, Yvonne Michaels, Mary (Kevin) Keenan, Alan (Judy) Bugai, and Scott (Lisa) Bugai; her 16 grandchildren; her 30 great-grandchildren; her 3 great-great-grandchildren; and her siblings, Audrey (Alois) Bugai, Carl (Anna) Couturier, Carole (William) Kahle, and Edith (Benjamin) Zimmerman.
A Mass from the Order of Christian Funerals will be held on Friday, January 5, 2024 at 11am at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, with Visitation starting at 10am. Visitation will also be held on Thursday, January 4 from 5pm-6:30pm with a Rosary recital at 6:30pm at the church.
The family would like to thank daughters Jennifer, Mary Lee, and Jean Anne for being Mary's primary caregivers and for tending to their mother's needs during the last several months.
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Arraignments provided by Oak Grove Funeral Home of Ludington.