Mary Ann (Jakowski) Lohmann, 80, beloved mother, grandmother, and friend, passed away in Garden Grove, California, on July 17, 2023, with her daughter by her side, after a lengthy battle with dementia.

Born on February 4, 1943, in Menasha, Wisconsin, Mary was the youngest daughter of Regina and Lawrence Jakowski. She moved to California in 1961 to attend Queen of Angels School of Nursing, where she met lifelong friends. She worked as a nurse at several hospitals throughout her 45-year career, retiring in 2009 from the San Gabriel Valley Medical Center as a nurse in the post-anesthesia care unit. Mary worked tirelessly, giving the highest level of care and compassion to her patients and appreciating the camaraderie she had with her coworkers.

Although Mary was proud of her job as a nurse, the role she cherished most was that of mother. She was devoted to her daughter, and she sacrificed much as a single working parent to prioritize her daughter’s educational opportunities, growth, and well-being. Mary juggled the long hours of being a sole provider to serve as team mom or assistant coach for soccer teams, to attend school events, to have dinner with her daughter every night, and to be a proxy mom to her daughter’s friends and family friends. After her retirement, Mary adored her newest role of grandma, attending countless sporting events and dance and musical performances.

Mary also dearly loved her cats, which she treated as members of her family. Mary’s life outside of work and being a parent/grandparent was very busy with her many hobbies, including gardening and maintaining her enviable collection of rose bushes, needlework, watching sports and rooting for her favorite Green Bay Packers and Anaheim Angels, reading, baking, traveling, and enjoying outings to the Huntington Library and Gardens and the L.A. Arboretum. She spent many hours volunteering with various organizations, including the Special Olympics and the Society of St. Vincent De Paul at her parish, and she never turned down the opportunity to lend a helping hand to neighbors or her dear Temple City community. Her annual Christmas Eve open houses became precious memories for all who attended, and no Christmas was ever the same without her legendary family recipe’s potato candy, bountiful spread of her delicious baked goods, impressive collection of Santa Clauses from around the world, and always too-generous spread of carefully selected Christmas gifts.

Mary will be lovingly remembered and is survived by her only child, Denise (Josh) Mester of Long Beach, California, and her beloved grandchildren, Nathan and Madeline Mester. She will also be dearly missed by numerous treasured friends and neighbors from her community in Temple City, California, where she lived from 1968 until 2019. Mary was preceded in death by her sister, Kathryn Wise, and her parents. Mary’s warm smile, dry wit, mischievous and playful flair, stubborn and resilient independence, unwavering compassion, and dedication to helping others are among her many beautiful qualities that will endure in the hearts of all who were privileged to know and love her.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, August 14, 2023, at St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Temple City, California. A reception will follow at Almansor Court in Alhambra. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Mary’s honor to either the American Nurses Foundation or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Mary’s family wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to the nurses and staff at Crescent Landing of Garden Grove for their loving and compassionate care of Mary during her last four years.

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