Diane Marie Marchant unexpectedly passed away at her home in Racine, Wisconsin on Saturday evening, February 10, She was 64 years old. It may be redundant at this point to mention that she had a Catholic upbringing, but these are the facts.
Youngest sister, Christine was born in Diane and her family lost mother Leona to cancer at an early age and she was mostly raised by her sisters into early adulthood. She married Michael Marchant, Sr. Diane was dedicated to her children and often expressed how motherhood was her true calling.
Diane and Michael, Sr. Eventually Diane would remarry in to the love of her life and long time boyfriend, Tommy Ballantyne. Aside from her calling as a mother, Diane was a city landscaper, hospital receptionist, thrift store manager, volunteer at her local church, and a caretaker for beloved friend Nana Rose Hoefs. Diane was an aunt, Godmother, and a food-providing hero to humans and animals alike.
She had the uncanny ability to make instant and lasting friendships with strangers, something that one could equate to an extraordinary form of Earthly magic. Diane was a cancer survivor and managed a litany of medical ailments throughout her later life with courage and grace. She was a lover of blue humor and was endlessly and sometimes inappropriately hilarious. She was known to burst into spontaneous song and dance, much to the chagrin of her children. Truly a one-of-a-kind born entertainer and mood-lightener.
Diane closely followed her Green Bay Packers football team and was a lover of heavy metal and hard rock music in contradiction to her devout Christian faith. She was a black-belt level card-writer and had a mental index of birthdays and anniversaries that rivals any modern data-collecting algorithm. Her cards were often decorated meticulously by hand and featured stickers and drawings curated to each occasion.
