Mary V. Mastalish

Mary V. Mastalish passed away on Friday, July 26, 2019 at the Harbor Campus in Port Washington, after a lengthy battle with Dementia. She was 73 years old. Although mom was a resident of The Harbor Campus for several years, she was born in Milwaukee, and lived there until moving to Port Washington, in 2014. Mom grew up on the south side of Milwaukee, and would talk about walking to the corner stores to purchase ice cream cones or candy for a few pennies. She would say every corner seemed to have a local store and everyone knew everyone. Her family belonged to St. Josaphat Basilica and she grew up going to catholic school. Shortly after high school, mom started working for the City of Milwaukee at the Central Library downtown. Initially she worked in data processing which included various duties and as time went on, her roles would change as the times changed but she ended up retiring from there with over 30 years of experience. A coworker of my mom told me how when they first started back in 1965, they would go to watch silent movies at the museum during lunch for 5 cents. They would also roam the many floors of the library because besides the 3 floors above ground, there are 4 floors beneath the building which are called the tiers. Mom even took me down to the tiers on a few occasions and we both commented on how fortunate mom was to work in such a beautiful and historic building full of treasures. Mom had a lifelong passion for books and would get really excited telling me about which books recently came in. She never grew tired of reading and her constant companions were Danielle Steel and John Grisham. After mom retired, she volunteered for interfaith caregivers, driving people to appointments or helping them with grocery shopping. She also spent a lot of time volunteering at her church’s school helping tutor little ones with reading and math. She enjoyed attending the Wilson Park Senior center on a weekly basis and had a lot of friends there. She was also a lifelong card player and her favorite card game was Sheepshead. She would play whenever she had the chance and never lost her touch. Another passion was her lifelong love of animals. She always had dogs or cats and was a huge advocate of adopting animals from local shelters. Mary Mastalish is survived by her daughter Lynn (David) Bauer of Saukville, grandsons Jeremy and Nathan and great grandchildren; Lilah, Elliot and Oliver. Sister-in-law of Ginger Gostomski and Carol Gostomski. Further survived by other relatives and friends. Preceded in death by her parents, Edward & Helen Gostomski and brothers, Donald and Richard Gostomski. Mass of Christian Burial, Thursday August 1, 2019, 6PM at St. Joseph Catholic Church (1619) Washington St.), Grafton. Entombment Mt. Olivet Cemetery. In state on Thursday, at the church from 4PM until the time of service. I would like to thank the entire team at The Harbor Campus in Port Washington for their kindness, love and compassion shown not only to mom but also to my family. Mom was truly loved and respected there and it showed. I cannot thank them enough and will miss the residents as well as the staff. You are all rock stars as well as angels and I’m forever grateful to each and every one of you.