Alice Makla

Alice Makla
8/7/2020
One of Mt. Pocono's long-time and beloved residents, Alice Makla, died on August 7, 2020 at home. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she was a daughter of the late Mike and Amy Makla, and sister to Grace Sawyer and Robert Makla.
Alice began coming to Mt. Pocono as a child and quickly formed a deep love for the area and its community. She knew every detail of its history, geography and backroads, and she especially enjoyed her favorite fishing spots. She befriended generations of families in the Poconos and constantly forged new friendships far and wide, doing some matchmaking in the process and often inviting new friends to her annual birthday celebration.
Alice is best known by her family and friends for her generosity and her enterprising and playful spirit. She would spend countless hours entertaining children, with sleds and go-carts and fishing, taking them on adventures in the woodland wonderland she created, building treehouses and gardens, creating animal puppets from paper or napkins, finding new uses for old gadgets, giving endless golf cart rides, and always being ready with new jokes and riddles. One of her favorite pursuits was shopping for toys to give her nieces and nephews, and her creativity was legendary.
Alice's other great joy was creating a haven for local animals – deer, birds, rabbits, turkeys and more. Each year she watched the deer return to have their babies on her front lawn and the bird families build nests on her porch. Observing and caring for these special "pets" was a source of great happiness for her and she often called her family to give reports on all of the recent wildlife activity.
When she was a young girl Alice wrote a poem that was published in a local newspaper, and that sparked her great enjoyment for writing short stories and poetry. In her final weeks she was watching clouds from her living room and thinking of how she could feature them in a poem.
In more recent years, despite it being harder for Alice to get around, she maintained her independent and energetic spirit. This was also made possible by the many friends who looked out for her, especially Chris Khouri and Mary Ellen Flood, and her indefatigable caregiver Julietta Giorgobiana. Alice worked in real estate in Brooklyn and Mt. Pocono, and she continued this until fairly recently. She was an active member of her church and she often joined lifelong friends for a lively game of backgammon.
She was an appreciative, accepting, enthusiastic and adventurous sister, aunt and friend. Her lightheartedness will be a constant inspiration and her love will always be with those who were dear to her.
Alice is survived by her nieces: Peggy Sawyer, Elizabeth Press, and Susan Sawyer; nephew, Philip Sawyer, and eight grand-nieces and nephews.
A celebration of Alice's life will be held next summer. Private cremation has been entrusted to Bolock Funeral Home Crematory.
The family invites Alice's friends to post tributes, memories and treasured stories about her at bolockfuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Ed Center in Stroudsburg by visiting poconowild@ptd.net.
Bolock Funeral Home
6148 Paradise Valley Road, Cresco
bolockfuneralhome.com