Lula May Wesserling

May was born in Charlotte, TN the third child of five children to Thomas & Sally (Long) Dunaway. She grew up there, surrounded by Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins until her parents moved to Detroit, MI for better employment opportunities, when she was 13. The World War II D-Day invasion of France by U.S. troops took place on her 15th birthday! She graduated from Pershing High School in Detroit in 1947 & went on to work as a secretary for several different companies throughout her career.

She married Frank P. Wesserling on April 24th, 1954 and, after renting an apartment in Highland Park for a couple of years, they bought a brand new home in Garden City, MI in 1956. May & Frank never had children but were always very close to their many nieces and nephews on both sides of their families.

They lived in Garden City for 33 years, and then relocated to Lakeland, FL in 1989, after they retired. When Frank passed away in 2000, May stayed in Florida for a couple of years but then returned to Michigan in 2002 to be nearer to family. Back in Michigan, May lived first at Brashear Senior Tower in Livonia & then, when she fell and broke her arm at the age of 90, moved into The Presbyterian Village of Westland. She remained there, still in an Independent Living apartment, until she passed away.

May was always a very strong woman and insisted on doing things for herself! She was still getting up at 5am, getting herself dressed & ready, making her own breakfast and lunch, doing her own laundry and getting herself ready for bed, up until shortly before she passed. She survived many things--she was hit in the head with a gun during a robbery in the 1950's, she had a heart attack and breast cancer in the 1990's, and she broke her right arm (she was right-handed) in the 1990's and again in 2019. She made it unscathed through the COVID pandemic, though she was not at all happy with being required to stay in her apartment at times.

She enjoyed walking for exercise, at first with the walker's group at Laurel Park Mall across from Brashear Tower where she lived, and then at The Village starting out with a cane and ending up with her red roll-a-lator walker. She walked all 9 long halls there most days, knew everyone, and enjoyed the social contact as much as or more than the workout. She was a kid at heart, as her favorite foods were chocolate and ice cream, which made chocolate ice cream the ultimate best in her opinion!

May will be deeply missed by all that were blessed to know her. She is survived by her two remaining siblings, Marion (Leonard) Gudinas, and Nancy (Anthony) Wieczorek, by her many nieces and nephews, and by all of her friends at The Village of Westland.