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Jill’s Story

Site created on September 16, 2022

If you would like to honor Jill with a gift, please consider donating to the Jill Marderness Youth Scholarship Fund at https://www.yoursnap.org. Thank you.

Jill Marderness went to Michigan in June 2022 to play music. She played contrabassoon in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra (https://vimeo.com/731564396/99b877e6a4). She had planned to play bassoon, coordinate educational and performance events, and mentor student quintet players with the Bay View Music Festival for her 42nd summer. She took the season off to have chemotherapy/immunotherapy treatments for Stage IV gallbladder cancer that was diagnosed June 9th. Emily visited Bay View for six weeks and we (Jill, Fred, and Emily) saw many friends and enjoyed the outdoors in the beautiful summer weather as often as possible.

The treatments showed signs of being effective until August 30th, when we learned that cancer had spread to her bones and to her cerebrospinal fluid (leptomeningeal disease). We took a medical transport flight (Learjet) home to Scottsdale, Arizona since Jill had been planning to transfer to Mayo Clinic in September with the end of the Bay View Music Festival. At Mayo on September 15th, Jill had a consultation with an oncologist who said there were no treatment options for her. She started hospice care at home in Scottsdale.

Jill died on September 27th just after midnight while listening to "A Quiet City" by Aaron Copland. We have appreciated everyone’s love and support very much as Jill fought cancer and as Fred and Emily have grieved the loss of the most amazing wife and mom.

-Jill, Fred & Emily

Newest Update

Journal entry by Emily Marderness — Dec 12, 2022

The celebration of life for Jill in Arizona was on December 5th, 2022 at Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ. The entire celebration of life was live streamed on Zoom and recorded. You can find the recording at this link: https://youtu.be/k7Oyw6vEdqY

You can also find the program for the service at this link: bit.ly/JillWM.

Our utmost gratitude to all who attended Jill's celebration of life in-person or on Zoom.

There will be a service in Bay View, Michigan in Summer 2023 and we will share details here on CaringBridge when we have an exact date planned.

-Emily & Fred

Read More of the journal titled "Jill’s Celebration of Life Recording"

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