Marilyn Alfreda Poole was born January 13, 1937 in Nampa Idaho, the 4th of 5 children. Her innate caretaking for those that were fortunate to benefit from her care began at age 5, when her youngest brother was born. Her strong Christian faith was nurtured by her parents who were both Nazarene ministers. Marilyn was Valedictorian at College High in Nampa, then graduated with a BS in biology from Northwest Nazarene College in 1959 where she was active in several organizations and reigned as the Queen of Hearts, a title that those that were fortunate to have been loved by her deeply understood. After college, she moved to Portland, Oregon working at OHSU’s dental school, and then completed a 6-month specialty OHSU course in cytology. She worked over a decade as a cytologist reading pap smears for a local obstetrics office, then at Kaiser.
She married Alan Hillier in 1962, and they were deeply devoted to each other for over 58 years. They had two amazing daughters Teresa and Tami, and two wonderful grandsons, Austin and Drake. Al was into remodeling and woodwork. Marilyn spent many hours helping him hold boards, pipes and tiles, as well as helping him paint and wall paper. When Al built their dream home after they retired she was there whenever he needed her. They sold the house in 2019 and moved to Mary’s Woods, a continuing care retirement community. That was a good move for them and they have enjoyed making several new friends there.
She was able to travel with Al on several cruises to the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, the Mediterranean, the South Pacific and Alaska. They also enjoyed trips together to the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, England, France, the Caribbean and Mexico. She was a skilled seamstress and made clothes for the girls as well as crocheting afghans and hanging towels for family members and many of her friends. She was a fantastic cook and treated the family to many superb meals. Her first step to setting her table was arranging flowers from the garden. Her homemade spaghetti sauce was a treat everyone always enjoyed during their annual camping and boating week at Detroit Lake.
She was a remarkably beautiful woman, inside and out, throughout her life. She was blessed with many things, including intelligence and deep insight, and had an unusual skill of presenting all of that modestly. She also seemed to have more than her share of health challenges throughout her life, particularly increasingly over the last decade, that she always managed with remarkable grace and strength. She was the kindest, sweetest person her family has known, and even in her last week was able to offer supporting words of encouragement to them. We will greatly miss her, and are also comforted that her suffering is over and she is at peace in a much better place.
To keep others safe, there will be a very small family ceremony to honor her.
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