Louise Fromm Obituary

Born April 27, 1926, Louise L. Fromm passed away peacefully on September 15 at the beautiful age of 98. A celebration of her life is scheduled for Friday, October 18, 2024, at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church, 157 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI with instate at 9:30 am and a funeral mass at 10:00 am followed by interment in the parish columbarium.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions in her name to Capuchin Services for the poor and needy.
Louise will be fondly remembered as a kind and loving daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, and mentor.
She was the only child of Remy and Gabrielle Vander Roost. Remy and Gabrielle emigrated to the United States after World War I from the same Flemish neighborhood in Brussels Belgium, although they did not date until they arrived in Detroit.
Louise lived her entire life on Detroit's East Side except for a short period during the Great Depression when her father moved the family to Ohio to find work.
Remy was a talented plastering contractor. He built a family home on Kerby Road in Grosse Pointe Farms just before WWII and even plastered the basement walls and ceiling. Louise's future in-laws built a home at the same time just down the street and that is how she met her husband, Carl.
Louise worked for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit after graduating from Grosse Pointe High School. She continued to do so until her first child, Richard, was born in 1949.
She became engaged to Carl after he returned from World War II in the South Pacific where he served as an Army Air Corps first lieutenant and navigator on a B-29. They married in 1947 while Carl was still earning his Architectural Engineering degree under the GI Bill at the University of Detroit and working part time.
They raised four children and lived initially on the east side of Detroit. Then, in 1959, the family of six moved to a new home that Carl built on Belanger Avenue in Grosse Pointe Farms behind his father's house on Kerby Road. Carl's father had purchased the lot next to him on Kerby and the two behind him on Belanger and gave one lot to each of his three sons. Louise's father provided the construction loan and did the plastering.
After college Carl joined his father's masonry contracting business, the Charles Fromm Company, and expanded it into a successful and respected general contracting firm. Louise typically filled in for Penny, Carl's long-time office manager, when Penny was on vacation. Unfortunately, Carl died suddenly from a massive heart attack in 1985 at the age of 60, about eighteen months before he had planned to retire. He was playing golf at the time with his buddies. He shot a 38 on the front nine and collapsed and died while walking over to the tenth tee.
Louise lived in the Belanger house until 1994 when she sold it and bought a condominium at Lakepointe Towers in St. Clair Shores. She made many friends there and lived there until March of 2021 when she moved to nearby American House Lakeshore where her needs could better be met.
She was a kind, supportive, stay-at-home mom. If any of her children had a bad day at school, she was always there to cheer them up when they got home. The emotional support continued throughout her children's adult lives. She was active in the academic and extracurricular activities of her children from scouting to sports.
She became a member of St. Paul Catholic Church in 1941 at the age of 15, was married there, and was a member at the time of her death. Just before her 90th birthday, she was pulled over for speeding right in front of the church. The officer asked where she was going in such a hurry. She replied, "Sunday mass." He said that by the time he wrote a ticket, she would be late for mass, so he let her go if she promised to say two extra Hail Marys. She gladly accepted the offer and complied with her penance. Her children attended St. Paul Grade School and High School, although the high school closed in 1971 and her youngest child had to finish elsewhere.
She practiced her faith throughout her life in a quiet and devout manor. She was one of the hosts for the weekly rosary at Lakepointe Towers well into her 90s. She believed that a strong relationship with God was critical to living a full and complete life.
She enjoyed golf and bowling well into her 80s and continued to play bridge into her 90s. She once shot a hole in one. Her husband, Carl, was very jealous as he never achieved that feat. She and Carl joined the Lochmoor Club in Grosse Pointe Woods in 1968, after Carl's company built the new clubhouse that year, and remained active members there for many years. She was also an avid reader. Although she never had the opportunity to attend college, she got a great foundation at Grosse Pointe High School and continued to expand her intellect by reading books and participating in book clubs.
She loved to travel. When the children were small, she and her mother would take them to a cabin on a small inland lake in Northern Michigan for two weeks in the summer. Carl and her father would join the group for a long weekend in the middle of the two-week period as they were both in the construction business and could not afford to be away the entire time. Later, she and Carl enjoyed many golfing vacations to warm climates in the winter months when construction activity was slower. After Carl passed away, she travelled nationally and internationally mostly with her good friend Joan Baker who had also been widowed about the same time.
In 1999, after her parents had both passed away, she made a memorable trip back to Belgium with two of her children to reconnect with family. The families of both her parents got together to host a welcoming party. She had not been to Belgium since 1929 when she travelled there at the age of thee via the Queen Mary with her parents. Seventy years later, she reconnected with an uncle on her mother's side and an aunt on her father's side as well as ten first cousins, most of whom she met for the first time.
Louise was preceded in death by her parents Remy and Gabrielle Vander Roost, her husband Carl, a son Donald (Andrea) and a daughter Joann (Frank Mader.) She is survived by son Richard (Sharon) of Grosse Pointe Woods, son David (Julie) of Mission Hills, Kansas, ten grandchildren, and twenty-three great-grandchildren.
The family wishes to thank the competent and caring staff at American House Lakeshore where she spent her last 3-1/2 years. The family is also extremely grateful for her excellent private caregivers, who watched over Louise in her final five months, especially Sharon Whitney, Joni VanDerHagen, Andrea Hanke, Eva Papadhima, Jeannie Marzouk, and the employees of Hackett Homecare. Also, Carol Weidel who was a special friend and helped Lousie for many years.
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