Sandra Wilena Peterson Kratt, 85, went to be with her heavenly Father on October 1, 2024, joining parents Oscar and Leola and older brother “Pug Jr.”.
Sandra was born in Detroit, MI on May 11, 1939, the second of six children. The family later moved to the then township of Farmington, MI in 1950. Sandra graduated from the “new” Farmington High School in 1957.
Sandra married Eugene Kratt on December 23, 1961. The couple initially met at a wedding where they were both in the wedding party. Eugene’s “classic” pick up line was “don’t I know you from somewhere?” Indeed, they did as both worked at Detroit Diesel at the time. The courtship ensued where they met frequently for coffee breaks.
The newly married couple first settled in Madison Heights before moving to Farmington in 1966 and later building their new home in what would eventually become Farmington Hills in 1968. Living in the new subdivision of Independence Commons, Eugene and Sandra raised their four children.
Sandra was a fiercely dedicated mother and wife. Along with the duties of “traffic control” navigating the schedules of four children and running the house, there was no sporting event, choral concert, play, band performance or school function involving her children where she wasn’t present. And on the culinary front, while certainly not a gourmet chef, her sloppy joes and eggs benedict using Campbell’s cream of chicken soup as the base for hollandaise sauce was tops.
Of course, there was plenty of time for play and family fun in the Kratt household. Some of that fun and play involved annual road trips to Florida visiting grandparents or spending a week at Ormond Beach, FL. The kids also loaded up the family station wagon the day after school ended for the summer heading to Runyan Lake in Fenton, MI. Summers were spent fishing, swimming, sailing, playing on inflated large truck inner tubes, “stealing” vegetables from the family garden and listening to the banter of Sandra and Eugene playing cards in the evening with their neighbors.
Years later, in 1986, Sandra and Eugene traded the lake house in Fenton for a condominium in Bradenton, FL. In 1998, they also sold the home in Farmington moving to Highland, MI on a golf course living there until they moved to their current Michigan home in East Grand Rapids in 2014.
Sandra is survived by her husband, four children – Darrel, Cheryl (Larry), Dwayne (Stacy), Bruce (Betsy) a sister (Marleta), three brothers (Lanny, Wally and Bob), 10 grandchildren, two grand-dogs, seven grand-cats, and two great grand-cats.
A celebration of life funeral service will be held on October 25 at Westminster Presbyterian Church downtown Grand Rapids at 4:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, if you would like to donate in Sandra’s honor, the family has requested that donations be sent to West Michigan Hospice, 318 E Main Street, Suite F Lowell, MI 49331.