Mary Margaret Flynn Nantell, 74, passed away on the morning of August 10th, 2020 in her home in Palm Springs, CA. In these incredibly strange times, it seems incumbent upon us to mention immediately that she did not die of Covid-19, but rather she died of another epidemic lung cancer, caused from smoking. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Timothy Nantell, her five children, Kristin Miller, Scott Nantell, Matt Miller, Michelle Blackmon and Nick Nantell, her seven grandchildren, Gaynor, Grayson, Gabrielle, Jack, Betsy, Caelum and Dolly, as well as her 10 brothers and sisters and 30-plus nieces and nephews.

Born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, Mary lived all over the world Switzerland, San Francisco, Chicago, Michigan, Hawaii, France, and finally in Minneapolis with winters spent in Palm Springs though her heart will always belong to Cedar Lake in Annandale, Minnesota, a lake on which family lore says her grandfather won a three room cabin in a poker game. There, Mary created her own destination for family, friends, friends of friends and a rotating cast of her children's friends - you know who you are. Everyone was welcome, and Mary loved to throw a party.

Mary was a woman of many contradictions: She had her master's in Psychology from Eastern Michigan University and was a practicing Psychologist for many years, but also held her contractor's license and knew her way around a jobsite. She was fluent in French and studied traditional French cooking, but maybe loved burgers, brats and corn at the cabin even more. She read voraciously seeking out exalted and difficult literature to read every night before she went to bed, but she loved to watch "trash TV" (her words) and laugh at the housewives too. She was incredibly smart (she would be aghast if this wasn't mentioned), witty, hilarious, quick to laugh, incredibly loving and "like a mom" to many. Though she did not die of the coronavirus pandemic, she definitely died amongst it.

Still in Palm Springs during the summer because air travel had become inadvisable due to her almost 30 year battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Her final weeks marked by heroic acts of her husband, her siblings and her children battling to figure how to operate in this new paradigm, while Mary was stuck in a hospital room, in which, she would hear that she only had two months to live, without her husband by her side. She only held on for two more weeks after that prognosis, but thankfully she was able to spend that time in her own bedroom in her own house with a view of the pool and the palm trees, surrounded by the people who loved her most and who she loved most her husband, children, grandchildren, siblings and nephew, who spent their time crying and laughing, at her bedside and splashing in the pool. Mary got to throw one more party. 

In lieu of flowers, please quit smoking or donate to the American Lung Association.