Helen Sanecki

Helen Sanecki died peacefully on October 21 at Kelly & Gordon’s Kare Home where she has been residing for the past three months. Born in Detroit, Michigan on December 3, 1921, Helen’s family moved to Haynes’ Township when Helen was a small child. She attended school in Haney before leaving home at the young age of 14 to return to Detroit. She worked as a nanny and later at Chrysler Corporation during World War II. Despite not having a high school diploma, Helen entered Marygrove College and graduated with a teacher’s certificate in home economics. She went on to receive a master’s degree in education from Wayne State University and a master’s in guidance and counseling from the University of Detroit. Helen taught home economics for fourteen years and was a guidance counselor for seventeen years in the Harper Woods school system. After 45 years, she retired to the family farm on Shaw Road. Helen turned a rye field next to the family farm in to a small version of Muir Woods where she planted maples, spruce, fruit trees and beautiful flowers. Helen was a strong, independent, hard-working woman with a compassion for animals and a wonderful sense of humor. She always had dogs and cats and the dogs were always called “Sam” and the cats “Blondie” regardless of what they looked like. Helen was a world traveler. She loved to take cruises with her cousin Eleanor, and told the story of crossing the ocean on the Queen Mary and returning on the Queen Elizabeth. She took numerous trips to her native Poland where she had many Sanecki cousins. Helen was an accomplished ballroom dancer with a basement full of trophies. She danced from New York to Los Angeles. She was also an award-winning author of the book, “Tales of the Wailing Winds” – a collection of short stories based on her life in Detroit and Alcona county. Helen loved a good glass of red wine, a tenderloin steak and loved playing pinochle with her many neighbors and friends. Helen’s parents Hipolyt and Feliska preceded her in death as well as her sisters Genevieve and Marie, and her beloved brother Henry. A funeral mass will be held at 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 23rd with Father Bob Bissot presiding. Burial will follow at St Anne’s Cemetery in Harrisville. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Helen & Henry Sanecki scholarships in care of Northeast Michigan Community Foundation. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Helen Sanecki, please visit our flower store.