Mary Margaret “Meg” Haney, this beloved, beautiful, one of a kind and ahead of her time woman was called to heaven on March 3, 2026, at the age of 89 and now has her memory back.
Meg was smart, witty and lately full of zingers. With a zest for literature, history and the arts, she had a creative eye and lived in a world of color. There wasn’t a space she touched where she didn’t leave her creative mark. She loved to travel, attend theatre, spend time in Manistee and read to her grandchildren.
Meg grew up in South Bend, IN on a farm with goats, kittens, puppies and a horse for pets. She attended St. Mary’s Academy in South Bend, IN followed by St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame where she met the love of her life, Don Haney. In 1957 she set off for NYC to attend the Tobe-Coburn School of Design to study fashion merchandising and live in the famous Barbizon Hotel for women pursuing artistic careers. During this time, Don was in the Navy in Rhode Island and the two of them wrote many beautiful love letters to each other. In November 1958 Don and Meg married at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of Notre Dame. They made their life in Grand Rapids and raised three children, John, Tom and Hillery who have been blessed to have such loving parents.
Meg will be remembered for her sense of humor, no-nonsense one liners and ability to make everything work out one way or another. She had incredible insight both creatively and intuitively and inspired forward thinking. As an amazing cook, she contributed recipes to cookbooks such as with the Junior League and hosted many dinner parties with a wonderful group of lifelong friends. Her passion for culture, literature, travel and art has been passed down to her children and grandchildren.
Meg is survived by her incredibly devoted husband of over 67 years Don, sons John and Tom (Sherry) and daughter Hillery, her two much loved grandchildren Julia and Valen McDaniel, and sister in-law Catherine Haney as well as many nieces and nephews on both sides of the family. She was preceded in death by her son Michael Robert, her parents John R and Mary (Jones) Droege, her brother John J Droege and her nephew John Patrick Droege.
Our family would like to express our immense gratitude to the wonderful caregivers from Visiting Angels and Cascade Trails as well as the guidance from Trinity Health ALZ Dementia Caregivers support group and all of the generous people who have surrounded our family with love and have cared for our mom. To you, our debt of gratitude is immeasurable.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held to honor Meg’s life on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. with visitation at 10:00 a.m. at St. Paul the Apostle Church, 2750 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.
A luncheon will be held after mass at Cascade Trails Senior Living, 1221 Spaulding Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 at 12:30 in the main dining room. All are welcome to attend.
4 Responses
My heart breaks for you and your family. Your mom was clearly a very special woman, and her love will always live on through you. I’m thinking of you and sending you so much love to all of you.
John
Our deepest sympathy to you and your family. It is so hard to lose a Mother and it sounds like she was a special woman who will truly be missed.
The Haney family. So sorry to hear the news. I loved your mom. She was so good to my mom and the neighborhood. Rest in peace. We saw her when the Meisenbach girls took the neighborhood ladies to lunch. Miss those ladies getting together.
Hello, I’m Tom, Meg’s second,— and—by all accounts—favorite —son.
I know each of us here have heavy hearts as we face that we will be missing my Mom from here on out. But I think our grief is just love without a recipient. And now we have to share this together. But…let’s assuage the heavy heart by knowing that she is now re-doing the wallpaper in heaven.
I used to scoff when people said that I reminded them of my Mom. I wanted to be different; I wanted to be my own person. But now, I can’t think of a better or more meaningful compliment. Mom raised caring children, as John and Hillery certainly are. So I would be proud to know this was true.
Not long ago, we faced the challenge of cleaning out and selling our childhood family home. Working together on this did not create family tension. Instead, it brought us all more closely together and gave us joy as we re-discovered long-forgotten bones of our family framework. We relived many past moments through these relics, often pausing and interrupting each other with pleasure to re-live a lifetime’s worth of memories together.
During this massive project there was no sense of desperation or need by any one of us to take anything for ourselves or fight over heirlooms. More often than not, we’d remark ‘Hillery should have this thing,’ or ‘John should definitely keep that!’ Because what we started with when we showed up for this project was an inner peace about our childhoods. There was no significant wound or unmet “want” in our home.
We grew up loved; that was our foundation. So, the true heirloom that we all got to keep are these wonderfully rekindled memories.
For me, one particular thing that stood out was the childhood books that Mom chose for us. I remember her reading to me at bedtime. As I took these old books down from their now dusty shelves, I became even more impressed with her choices. Mom was on the cutting edge of literature; somehow, she picked first edition releases that became significant classics long before their universal recognition. Books like The Giving Tree or Where the Wild Things Are, and so many others that celebrate individuality, generosity, and kindness. These stories were often about kids who feel or act differently than others, or those who don’t quite fit in.
These stories helped me recognize that not fitting in, like I often felt as a kid, meant that a person was perhaps unique and extraordinary.
I can see that the lessons in them that strengthened me were also passed down through Hillery to Mom’s grandchildren, —who are… perfectly …extraordinary people. I want to thank you, Mom, while I marvel in wonder at how you knew these things before the rest of the world found these values in those books.
I will also always remember how she explored the beauty in this world. She loved to take fall color tours, trips to Beaverton to see her childhood friend. She would take advantage of visiting me in California, too. We toured historic Gold Country—Sutter’s Mill and Columbia—where the miners first found gold in ’49. Mom had a relative that came to California during this era.
She especially loved the California coast which she remembered as a child taking the train from San Diego to San Francisco with her mother. We even found the abandoned train track that she would ride near the coastal town of Pacifica. I wonder how lovely that train ride would have been then.
Another time Mom, Dad, and I visited New Mexico. The southwest intrigued her. Albuquerque, Taos, and Santa Fe. I especially remember how much she loved the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, full of flower paintings. —My dad and I, not so much— (she may have also relished that fact).
She loved seeing the nearby petroglyphs and cliff dwellings at Chaco Canyon. She really admired pottery at the Sky-City Pueblo of Acoma. All this,…. despite the palate being pastels instead of bolds.
Mom, I just want to say, I have so many indelible memories of you.
I want to tell you that I’ve learned what is really important in life through you.
•1. Love your family with your whole heart,
•2. Support them for exactly who they are,
•3. And NEVER stop marveling at the beauty in this one precious life.
You lived a good life Mom, and you made it look easy. Distilling all of the chaos and complexity into the most essential truths, You really were our family glue..
I finally get it, Mom. And I hope I can be ever more like you.