Patricia Evelyn Louise Stanciu

Patricia Evelyn Louise “Pat” Stanciu passed peacefully from this life after a brief and unexpected illness on September 25, 2026, at the age of 79.

Pat was born and spent her early life in Chicago, Illinois. She met Alecsa Stanciu while they were both working for the same firm. They married in Chicago on December 2, 1973. Not long after, they moved to Glendale, Arizona, where they would make their home and raise their family. Pat's mother moved to Glendale with them, where they joined Alecsa's mother, and the house where Pat and Alecsa made their home remained Pat's home for the rest of her life.

Pat and Alecsa had a happy marriage that lasted 25 years, until Alecsa's death on December 28, 1998. In their younger years, they enjoyed getting together for parties with their families and friends. They also built the kind of family life that was full of simple traditions that would stay with their children for decades.

After her marriage and move to Arizona, Pat became a homemaker and devoted herself to raising her children, Kristin Elizabeth, born in 1977, and Kenneth “Ken” Erik, born in 1980. She stayed home with them through their grade school years and into middle school.

As a mother, Pat was loving, caring, and fun, although she could be a little strict when necessary. She was practical and very frugal, always looking for a coupon or a good bargain.

Pat loved to read and made sure her children did too. When a new library was built near their home, she signed Kristin and Ken up for the summer reading program and took them every week to collect their prizes after they had read the required number of books. Reading remained one of Pat's own lifelong pleasures. She especially enjoyed romance, detective, and mystery novels, including books by Nora Roberts and James Patterson. She regularly swapped books with friends and was always happy to receive books for her birthday or Christmas.

Pat attended St. John's Lutheran Church, the family church since Pat and Alecsa moved to Arizona, and it remained an important part of Pat's life. She and Alecsa sang in the choir, and Pat continued singing for many years. In her later years, she enjoyed going to the Saturday evening service early so she could visit with her friends before the service. She was faithful and dedicated to her church and the friendships she made there. Some of Pat's

favorite hymns were “Beautiful Savior,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Amazing Grace,” and “On Eagle's Wings.”

Pat loved spending time at home. During her children's summers, she enjoyed watching her soap operas, swimming, and soaking up the sun. Later in life, she could often be found watching “Law & Order,” Lifetime and Hallmark movies, or catching up on programs recorded on her DVR. She loved QVC and enjoyed Bingo, where she developed close friendships with other players. She also looked forward to monthly lunches with friends from church. Pat was quiet and somewhat private, with a small circle of friends, but she valued the friendships she made.

After Alecsa's death, Pat lived independently for nearly 28 years. She liked living alone and enjoyed her privacy and the freedom to do what she wanted, when she wanted. She was fiercely independent, and that independence remained an important part of who she was.

Pat was creative and loved working with her hands. Over the years, she enjoyed a variety of crafts, from making plastic canvas projects and seasonal floral wreaths to painting with Kristin. She also loved baking, especially the Bundt cakes and Christmas cookies she made for her family. Her Thanksgiving pumpkin pie became a family favorite, made from a recipe she kept for decades.

Pat passed on a love of the Chicago Cubs to Ken and rooted for the home team Arizona Cardinals.

Pat had a lifelong love of animals, especially horses and dogs. She fell in love with horses when she was young, and that love stayed with her throughout her life. During her brief hospital stay, she spoke of “the picture of me on the pony,” and after her passing, her family found the photograph among her belongings. It showed a very young Pat sitting on a horse, wearing a cowboy hat and smiling.

Pat also loved her dogs deeply. Duke, Kane, and Kiara were her beloved companions and, as she would say, her babies. Kiara, her last German Shepherd, was especially devoted to Pat and remained by her side during her later years. Kiara now lives with Kristin.

Pat was proud of her children, always talking about Kristin and Ken and sharing the things they were doing with family and friends.

The family continued to gather together regularly, especially for holidays. Pat was particularly fond of Kristin's chicken cacciatore at Mother's Day and loved Ken's Christmas prime rib dinner.

Patricia is survived by her daughter, Kristin Elizabeth Stanciu, and her life partner, Anthony Frye; her son, Kenneth “Ken” Erik Stanciu, and Ken's life partner, Blair Holck, and Blair's

daughter, Meleana; and her nephews Robert Tureck and his wife, Diane, and their children, and Richard Tureck and his wife, Carol-Anne. She is also survived by extended family and many friends who were an important part of her life.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Alecsa Stanciu; her mother, Patricia Bernice Eichorn (née Gutzke); her father, Richard Eichorn, a World War II veteran; her sister, Arlene Francis Tureck (née Eichorn); her brother-in-law, Frank Tureck; and other extended family members who passed before her.

Through all of these years and traditions, Pat remained herself: caring, strong, independent, sometimes opinionated and stubborn, quietly funny, and deeply devoted to the people and animals she loved.

Pat's life was made up of the things she loved: family gathered around the holiday table, a good book waiting to be read, a craft spread across the dining room table, a seasonal wreath on the front door, a coupon tucked into her purse, a dog by her side, a horse at the fence, friends at Bingo or church, and a home where she could be herself.

She was a caring, strong, and fiercely independent woman who loved her family and her animals deeply.

And perhaps fittingly, somewhere among all those memories is a little girl in a cowboy hat, smiling from the back of a horse.

That was Pat. And that little girl was always still a part of her.

Visitation will be held at St John's Lutheran Church, 7205 N 51st Ave, Glendale, AZ 85301, US, on October 19, 2026, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am, followed by the Funeral Service at St John's Lutheran Church from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.

A Committal Service will take place at Resthaven Park Cemetery, 6450 West Northern Ave, Glendale, AZ 85301, US, on October 19, 2026, from 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm.