Kathy Maradeo

Kathy (Dore) Maradeo, 65, of Seeley Lake, passed away on Tuesday, December 17th, one day short of her 66th birthday. She passed away peacefully at home attended to by her husband as was her wish. She was on home hospice care due to her long battle with MS.
She was born in Chicago on December 18th, 1953 to Maurice and Muriel Dore. Maurice was a Police Officer for the Chicago Police Department and Muriel was a School Teacher for the Chicago Public School System.
On March 7th, 1975 she was married to Frank Maradeo. She was diagnosed in April of 1975 with Multiple Sclerosis. She swore at that time that the disease would not affect her in any way and she would live her life to the fullest. On March 11th 1977 she gave birth to a son, Jason Maradeo. On March 31st 1980 she also gave birth to a Daughter, Rebecca Maradeo (Becky).
In January of 1981 Becky passed away at 9 months old due to heart problems. In spite of the disease and losing her beloved daughter, in 1988, at the age of 34 she achieved her dream and got her degree in Education from the University of Northern Illinois. It was during this time that the disease started to get more aggressive and all she could do was substitute teach and was not able to teach full time which she so desperately wanted.
Kathy and Frank moved to Seeley Lake in February of 2000. She just wanted to be closer to her son who had moved to Missoula 3 years earlier. Kathy worked for the Double Arrow Landowners Association in Seeley for eight years before she had to make the tough decision to quit due to the MS progressing so rapidly. Her husband Frank, left his position as Fire Chief for the Seeley Lake Fire Department, to attend to his wife and her needs.
For the last year and a half she had been on home hospice care. For her, one of the advantages of being on hospice care is that she could plan for what’s to come and what’s to happen after she’s gone.
She is survived by her husband Frank, their son Jason, and her “DoggyGuards”, Sparky, Sadie, and Bella. Brothers Michael and Maurice, Sisters Muriel, Linda, and Debbie. She was preceded in death by her Mother and Father plus another brother, Jackie.
Per Kathy’s wishes there will be no service. She is to be cremated and Frank and Jason will take her cremated remains back to Illinois, “When the weathers nice” as she scolded us, so she can be buried with her daughter. Also per Kathy’s wishes she asked that any donations be sent to the Citizens Alliance Bank in Seeley Lake to help Frank deal with her long standing medical bills.
She didn’t want to specifically spell out anybody in her thanks being afraid she would miss someone. She did want to thank the Partners in Home Care team for watching over her as she passed into God’s arms.
As her husband, I have been given a lot of accolades for taking care of her the last 5 and a half years. Her and I talked about it numerous times that it was a challenge to say the least. You never knew what each day would bring. In spite of all that I would do it all over again if I could just have her back.