Marlene Csakany (née Witt)

Peacefully, on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the age of 87. Beloved wife of the late Peter Csakany for more than fifty years. Loving mother and mother-in-law of Lee and Lisa Herman, Andrea Csakany, and Jonathan Csakany and Dr. Raquel Trattner. Cherished grandmother of Gabriella and Michael. Loving cousin of Harvey and Lillian Simons; Chuck and Laura Slotnick; Linda and Ellen Witt; Leslie A. and Mona Beck; Elizabeth Beck and David Birnbaum and their children Atom and JJ; and Alison Beck and Dr. Richard Friedlander and their children Seth and Max. Dear to her entire extended family and many friends.

Born in Boston on December 5, 1938, Marlene was largely raised by her grandmother and became a mother at nineteen. She raised Lee on her own at a time when that was far from easy, then left Boston to build a life in Montreal with Peter, where their family grew to include Andrea and Jonathan. When Peter became ill, she cared for him, as she cared for everyone around her.

Marlene was warm, adventurous and remarkably nonjudgmental. A person's money, status, religion or background never determined their worth to her, and she accepted her children for exactly who they were. Her children's friends would call the house and end up chatting with her for twenty minutes before asking for the person they had called to reach. Colleagues from John Abbott College still remembered her smile more than twenty-five years later.

She stayed curious to the end. She followed politics and current events, configured routers in her seventies, and checked her security cameras from her phone in her eighties. She loved new restaurants, tacos, Thai and Korean food, trips to Mexico, the beach, and music from Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to the Beatles, Queen and Vivaldi. At eighty-seven, she was still enjoying frozen strawberry margaritas from the slushy machine she had bought for her grandchildren. Her greatest joy was spoiling Gabriella and Michael, and she made no apology for it. "That's my joy," she said.

Marlene knew hardship, but never let it make her bitter. Her happiness was resilience, and the room she made in her life for everyone is what she leaves behind. She will be deeply missed.

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Marlene Csakany (née Witt)

Peacefully, on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the age of 87. Beloved wife of the late Peter Csakany for more than fifty years. Loving mother and mother-in-law of Lee and Lisa Herman, Andrea Csakany, and Jonathan Csakany and Dr. Raquel Trattner. Cherished grandmother of Gabriella and Michael. Loving cousin of Harvey and Lillian Simons; Chuck and Laura Slotnick; Linda and Ellen Witt; Leslie A. and Mona Beck; Elizabeth Beck and David Birnbaum and their children Atom and JJ; and Alison Beck and Dr. Richard Friedlander and their children Seth and Max. Dear to her entire extended family and many friends.

Born in Boston on December 5, 1938, Marlene was largely raised by her grandmother and became a mother at nineteen. She raised Lee on her own at a time when that was far from easy, then left Boston to build a life in Montreal with Peter, where their family grew to include Andrea and Jonathan. When Peter became ill, she cared for him, as she cared for everyone around her.

Marlene was warm, adventurous and remarkably nonjudgmental. A person's money, status, religion or background never determined their worth to her, and she accepted her children for exactly who they were. Her children's friends would call the house and end up chatting with her for twenty minutes before asking for the person they had called to reach. Colleagues from John Abbott College still remembered her smile more than twenty-five years later.

She stayed curious to the end. She followed politics and current events, configured routers in her seventies, and checked her security cameras from her phone in her eighties. She loved new restaurants, tacos, Thai and Korean food, trips to Mexico, the beach, and music from Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to the Beatles, Queen and Vivaldi. At eighty-seven, she was still enjoying frozen strawberry margaritas from the slushy machine she had bought for her grandchildren. Her greatest joy was spoiling Gabriella and Michael, and she made no apology for it. "That's my joy," she said.

Marlene knew hardship, but never let it make her bitter. Her happiness was resilience, and the room she made in her life for everyone is what she leaves behind. She will be deeply missed.