Obituaries

Mary Leona (Lee) Crites Norman was born in Minot, North Dakota to Richard and Wyota on June 15, 1939. She departed this earth in the presence of loved ones on January 25, 2020 in Sherman, Texas.

Mary Lee is preceded in death by parents Richard Franklin Crites Sr and Wyota E Simonsen Crites, her brother Richard Franklin Crites, II; the father of her children James Norman Sr; son Richard Franklin Crites, III; and best friend and companion Steven Leonard.

She is survived by three sons and their wives, James Norman Jr. and Cheryl; Richard Norman and Mary; David Norman and Margie; and daughter Margie Norman Oliver ; ten grandchildren; 17 great grandchildren; sisters Judith Dillard, Pennie Smiley, Kathleen Blackburn, and Wyota Roberts; and a host of other beloved relatives and friends.

If you talk to Mary Lee’s family or friends, they could each share amazing stories about this wonderful woman but the family has decided to share the following love letter written to her by her granddaughter Megan Norman Lombardo.

Mary Lee.

She howled at the moon and prayed to God. She flew with fairies and angels. She sang hymns and honkytonk. She lived in the earth and in the heavens, equally connected to her cats and her ancestors. She rode horses and motorcycles and in the cabs of semis and on brooms. She was a collector and treasure hunter and leaf peeper and moon chaser. She was a poet and a storyteller and a magician. She was fearless, even when she was afraid; and braver than maybe she should have been at times.

She cooked comfort food and she was comfort. She sought out beauty in the world and she was beauty. She loved and was loved fiercely, and she was the center and a safety and a pillow and a kick in the rear and a reminder that we are greater than just this life.

She was robbed of her Self at the end. We watched her body try to steal her Spirit. What her body didn’t know, however, is that her Soul didn’t need it. She would not be tethered to a body that was failing her. She continued to love us and take care of us and bring us joy, even when her body could not.

And today, finally, she was liberated. Freed. Untethered. Flying, into the heavens, The same heavens she already had one foot in, The same heavens as her mama and her daddy and her son and her friends live in. The same heavens that she had told me, before she got sick, that she was ready to go to; she was done, she said, with the earth; she was ready.

Grandma, you said that a good half decade before you actually got to go to the heavens like you wanted. I’m sorry your sick body kept you trapped for so long. And now, for your freedom, we rejoice! Hallelujah! You are free at last! And your spirit is with us, permeating us, filling us, inspiring us, and loving us, perhaps even more so than it could before in its body.

You are free. You are flying away, away from your pain and right into love. God speed to you - our angel and fairy, our witch and warrior, our wild woman; our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, daughter, neighbor, friend.

Our hearts stand ready and open to expand when your spirit comes to visit us. Until then, may the wind be ever at your back, and under your wings, and may love be with you.

The family expresses their gratitude and thanks to Traditions Senior Living Center; Hospice Plus Care; and the First United Methodist Church Care Team all of Sherman. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).