Diane Marie Watson of Ann Arbor, Michigan passed away on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024 at the age of 80. She was born on December 10th, 1944 in Amarillo, Texas. She grew up in Grosse Ile, Michigan, attending Sacred Heart Elementary and Grosse Ile High School. She received a BA in Speech Therapy from Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Diane had a variety of jobs and occupations. She began her work life as a speech therapist in Richland Center, WI serving the needs of several surrounding communities. After a rewarding career in the field, she decided to move to the Bay Area where she took a number of “day jobs” that gave her the freedom to write and express her creativity: bartender, barista, house sitter, driver (at the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center), and paralegal. She eventually opened her own business, first with a traveling coffee cart and then her own coffee house that hosted music, poetry readings and other cultural events in downtown Oakland. Throughout her life she wrote poetry on a regular basis, often working in writing groups with other poets and sending finished works to friends and family, notably a piece entitled “Island Memories” she framed for her father. She was an avid Oakland A’s fan, especially when they played her beloved Detroit Tigers.
She moved to the Tampa, FL in 2000 to lovingly care for her father until his death in 2007, a great gift to him and her entire family. In 2017 she moved to Ann Arbor to live with her sister Barbara until she entered Hospice at her sister Mary’s in mid-December, where she died peacefully surrounded by family from a recurrence of metastatic breast cancer.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Marjorie Cahill Watson, Ralph James Watson and her brother John Thomas Watson. She is survived by siblings Barbara Lynn Watson, Andrea Gail Watson, Ralph J (Jim) Watson, Jr., and Mary Watson Swain.
The family would like to thank all the healthcare providers who cared for her in her final days and weeks and ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Arbor Hospice (https://secure.qgiv.com/for/arbhos)
A memorial service will take place in Ann Arbor in the coming months. Her ashes will be scattered in places she loved: Grosse Ile, Ocean Beach San Francisco, and Honeymoon Key, Florida.
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