Nancy Margaret Naiukow

Nancy Margaret Mary Kusiak Naiukow, 74, passed peacefully in her home on Friday January 10, 2025, surrounded by her loving family. Nancy was born to Edward and Margaret Kusiak in Detroit, Michigan, November 29, 1950. A precocious child, she loved spending time with her many aunts, uncles and cousins. Her large, extended family would hold regular card games/dancing parties in their homes where all were welcome. 

As a teen, Nancy often stayed with her various grandparents in a caregiver role, while also helping to babysit her nieces and nephews. From a very young age she learned the selflessness one needs to be a compassionate, trusted guardian of the vulnerable and little ones. 

She graduated from Lincoln Park High in 1968, a proud Railsplitter. Her early career included stops at Hudson’s Department Store and the Greyhound bus station. She took a 20-year sojourn to be a stay-at-home mom, but found her way back to the public sector at GNC where she took particular joy in helping people get healthy. She then worked to open the new Home Depot in 2002, and became a paint department mainstay for ten years, beloved by coworkers and customers alike.

She fell in love with a Vietnam Veteran and Detroit police officer, Pete Naiukow and following his retirement from the police force in the late 70s they pulled up roots and moved north. They settled just outside of Houghton Lake, a place they were familiar with from childhood vacations and their own snowmobiling trips, in Merritt, on 40 acres of former farmland. They grew football field sized gardens, fished from a pond they kept filled with rainbow trout and various pan fish, hunted and processed white tail deer and even lovingly refinished antique wooden furnishings. They raised three children who, with plenty of friends and cousins alike, constantly filled the home with the sounds of laughter, many pairs of feet running up and down stairs to retrieve props for plays, random jam sessions on keyboards and instruments no one knew how to play, pleas for tractor rides around the back 40, and the like. She always had hugs, a kind word, or extra clothes for any child in need that crossed her path. Her laughter and love know no bounds.

She spent many years working with both the Houghton Lake Athletic Boosters and the Houghton Lake Band Boosters; continuing to serve in positions for both, long after her children had all graduated. She chaperoned countless field trips, and her children were delighted to have her along.

She loved to dance, watch Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart and other classic movies, write beautiful stories and poetry for her loved ones, spend time with her grandchildren, travel anywhere she could, read aloud to any who would listen, study history, especially the Civil War, and spread joy through her delicious and authentic ethnic dishes from her Polish and Hungarian heritage.

She is survived by her husband of 54 years, Peter Sawerian; her children, Peter Jr. (Erika), Allie (Eliseo), and Rachel (Daniel); grandchildren, Trey and Aurora; brother, Gary (Linda), sister, Linda (Ernie), brother-in-law, Nick (Connie); and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends that all fondly recall the sheer happiness and snorting laughter she always brought with her.

In lieu of flowers please share a moment of kindness or compassion in a place you wouldn’t normally otherwise.

The Young-Holdship Funeral Home in Lake City is serving the family. Words of comfort and memories may be shared on www.holdshipfuneralhomes.com.

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