SEND FLOWERS
Obituary
Norma Lee (Nestich) Sattler, 94, went to sleep for the last time peacefully surrounded by her two younger sons (Chuck and Darrell) at her home on March 14, 2023 in Trenton, Michigan. Known as “Tootsie” since her youth, she was one of seven siblings born in Blairsville, PA on March 21, 1929 of the Nestich/Daubner clan. She shared childhood memories with her family about their upbringing in Tintown, a workers’ enclave along the river and railroad tracks in Blairsville and told memories of the Pittsburgh flood on St. Patrick’s Day in 1936 when her family were forced to the roof of their home during the peak crest phase. Following the flood, she and her family helped dry out their home and furnishings and continued living there after the adjacent glass factory closed - where her father had worked. She came from a first-generation immigrant family from the Slavic region of eastern Europe - Croatia and Yugoslavia.
During her youth in Tintown, she would swim in the Conemaugh River with her sisters, walk to the movie theatre to watch films on Saturday afternoons for 10 cents, and enjoy the food her dad would bring home from the Slovic community there. She spoke of the coal-warming stove in their kitchen where the family would come together during the cold winter months and where her mother would bake goods for the family. The rest of the two-story house was warmed by that single-stove downstairs, the home rented for $30 a month. She also spoke of their Christmas tree in an adjacent living room that stayed cold during the holiday season, and upstairs bedrooms that were chilly. Her humble beginnings transformed into a very good life with her husband and boys in Trenton, Michigan.
By her teen years, she moved to Toledo, Ohio area and resided in Rossford where she completed high school and lived with her grandmother, Gram (Terezia Olga Hubicka of Trnava, Slovakia). She often joked that she inherited Gram’s thick thighs! Some years later while working in a clothing store in Toledo, she met her husband of 62 years, Carl Sattler, on a blind date with friends. They were wed on October 17, 1953 at Good Shepherd Church in Toledo, Ohio, and relocated to Dearborn, Michigan where they started a family. Eventually, they settled in Trenton, next to where Carl served in the US Naval Reserves before meeting his bride. There, Norma and Carl raised their four sons in their community along the Detroit River, enjoying their neighbors and the downriver area where the Detroit River enters Lake Erie. Norma and Carl were dedicated to family outings and are remembered among extended family for attending everything.
Norma was a kind and loving mother who raised her four sons as a dedicated hockey mom. She had a peculiar sense of humor and charmed her family and all her care givers in the last few years of her life. Aunt Tootsie was known for her good cooking and dedication to her children. Among many other things, she enjoyed walking around her home during the summer months barefoot, watering her plants and yard. She was well liked by friends, family members and neighbors. The Sattler’s enjoyed many years with friends across the metro Detroit area in their travel trailer club and toured all over Michigan, enjoying the outdoors.
She was preceded in death by her husband Carl Paul Sattler (b. 6/7/1931, d. 3/11/2015), her father Thomas Nestich (b. 12/21/1892, d. 7/14/1960) and mother Mary Terezia Daubner Nestich (b. 1/25/1906, d. 5/23/1982), sister Mary Elizabeth “Mamie” Nestich Vargo (b. 1/20/1925, d. 8/17/1998), brother Thomas Michael Nestich (b. 3/15/1927, d. 6/2/2017) of the metro Toledo area. Her grandparents were first generation Americans, Terezia Olga Hubicka Daubner (b. 12-16-1886, d. 12/31/1971) and Michael Daubner (b. 9/23/1881, d. 7/26/1939). She is survived by her four sons Darrell Scott (Carla Taucher), Charles Thomas, Robert Alan (Pamela) and grandsons Mathias and Samuel and Paul David (Lori) and granddaughters Nicole and Natalie. She is also survived by her siblings Dolores Jean (Dolly) Nestich Sasala, Patricia Loucille (Patsy) Nestich Gerding, Theresa Ann (Terri and husband Larry) Nestich Sedlak, Judith Ann (Judie and husband Richard) Nestich Birt and Jacqueline Louise (Jackee and husband Arzo “Ozzie”) Nestich Lay and her sister-in-law Charlotte (Bascuk) Nestich.
Her family wishes for memorial condolences in her honor in your own personal manner or on the Michigan Memorial website knowing she went off to the spirit world. Burial of her ashes is forthcoming next to her husband at Michigan Memorial Cemetery along the Huron River between Toledo and Trenton. A celebration of life is anticipated to be convened during the summer of 2023 at a place to be determined and will be announced on the obituary listing here on the Michigan Memorial website. Please check back through May and June of 2023 for further information.
A celebration of life gathering was held for Norma Lee Sattler at Crystal Gardens in Southgate, Michigan among many family members on a warm and sunny afternoon of August 13, 2023. In attendance were approximately 60 family members and close friends of the Sattler family, including many relatives of the Daubner/Nestich clan, and close neighbors of Norma’s.
Several of Norma’s sisters and their family members travelled from Toledo, Ohio, and were among the immediate family of the Daubner/Nestich extended kin. Those able to attend the celebration included four of Norma’s five living sisters and/or uncles married into the family, but mostly first and second cousins. We enjoyed the presence of one sister and her daughter who traveled from western Pennsylvania (not too far from Blairsville where Norma was born), and a cousin and his wife on the other side of the family who reside in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The four-hour celebration went by quickly and will be long remembered by those who were able to attend. Many of our extended family members visited for the first time in many years and were engaged in good conversations over a family-style meal. A delicious, multi-course meal was served around circular tables decorated with glassware and centerpieces in a nicely decorated ballroom with elegant glass chandeliers.
A series of family photographs were placed on stand-up poster boards at a head table next to the stage and the eulogy referenced many of the photographs. Those included black and white photographs of Norma during her early years, photos of her parents, picture of family wedding celebrations, photos of Norma and Carl’s early years, pictures of the Sattler boys (include one of the most iconic photos of all the boys in hockey uniforms), images of Dad’s celebration of life, a photo of all the Sattler’s in front of their home as adults (late 1980s) and many others. One of the two poster boards featured black and white photographs of our mother’s early years in Blairsville and Toledo, and the other poster featured color photographs of the Sattler family as they grew up in Michigan.
The dinner set the stage for Norma’s son Robert (Bob) who spoke of his mother, their immediate family and stories of the extended family. Starting out, he recognized all the elders present, starting with the aunts and/or their husbands, and family members of deceased aunts and uncle who were present. All of the living siblings of Norma are in their 80s and 90s and their presence echoed the good genetics that has produced so may long-living people of the Daubner/Nestich family.
After the recognition of family elders, the subject turned to Sattler family stories that included many of the attendees. The introductory portion of the eulogy included the reading of most of the obituary that appears on this Michigan Memorial website. Following that, after some tears, Bob turned to individual stories about Sattler’s family starting with early childhood memories and ending this past spring. Early on in our family history, the Sattler’s traveled to Toledo and attended memorable Christmas gatherings at Macomber Lodge with the Nestich extended family. Around that same time, our family began camping trips throughout Michigan with a large canvas cabin tent before transitioning to travel trailers as the family grew (the tent is yet used by Chuck and Darrel for their annual river float in northern Michigan). The initial trailer was a Shasta with wings on the top end, and upgraded to a larger Avion trailer that is yet in the family and served as a deer hunting camp for many years.
Ice hockey was a family tradition for the Sattler family and our mom watched hundreds of games of her sons over the years. Those were the days of mites, squirts, peewee, bantams and midgets, all terms now obsolete in the hockey world. All the Sattler boys played ice-hockey into their teen and adult years (and continued with grandsons in Alaska). Bob shared a personal story about Norma and Carl’s trip to Alaska in the middle 1980s during which they traveled around in an RV and Norma discovered the Northern Lights in Fairbanks one fall dark evening while gazing out a window – she recounted that favorite story of her trip to Alaska – the dancing curtains of the Aurora borealis.
The celebration of life for Aunt Tootsie, Mom, Mrs. Sattler unfolded well and was received as a special day for her family, their friends and the large group of extended family members who paid their respects to our mother. The neighbors of the Sattler home came together and they will continue a close eye in the neighborhood as Norma did during her long tenure in Trenton.
The day was special for all who attended and may all who came that day be blessed in their own way with their own memories of the celebration of life that gathered family and friends for good food, reflection, story-telling and humor.
As a final note, if you are here, please write a memory of Aunt Tootsie, Mrs. Sattler or Norma (however you knew her) in the on-line condolence below on this website.
All our love for those who shared this special day to carry on the memories of our wonderful, beautiful mother.
Darrell, Charles and Robert
