After an adventurous, passionate, and full life, our beloved Mimi is now resting peacefully.
Mavis Holiday lived her life with determination, grace, humor, and adoration for her family and friends.
She is survived by her devoted husband, Glenn. Her loving children, Jim Russell, Kathy (Russell) Gillespie, Jeff Russell, and Kristen Russell. And her adoring grandchildren, Kaitlin (Russell) Petersen, Natalie (Russell) Liljeblad, Lindsay (Russell) Hiro, Lisa (Russell) Allen, William Gillespie, Jaqueline Brown, Meredith Russell, Jessica Brown, Emma Brown, and Evan Brown. She was also lucky enough to bestow hugs and kisses upon her eight great-grandchildren.
Mavis was born in Cass City, Mich., the youngest of four children.  She lost her mother when she was 18 months old and was sent to live with distant relatives until she was four.  She then moved to Waterford to be reunited with her father.
She blazed a path for herself growing up during the depression, never letting her difficult upbringing define who she was meant to become. She graduated from Pontiac Central High School in 1949 and shortly after, began raising a family in Waterford with her husband, Norman Russell. They were active members of Calvary Baptist Church, singing in the choir and making lifelong friends. In 1967, she became a career woman, taking a position at Hudson’s in Pontiac. After only a year, she was personally selected to be the executive assistant to the management team because of her charm and dedication. She was later promoted, becoming the regional manager’s assistant in Southfield. Every weekday for 30 years, she cautiously drove a variety of Volkswagen Beetles to Hudson’s, enjoying her work and making more friends along the way.
Mavis was remarried in 1972 to Ian Shaw and moved to Troy. She became a stepmother to his children, Karen (Shaw) Smart, Cameron, Andrew, Rosalyn, and Bruce Shaw. During this time, they enjoyed an active social life, and participated in various British sports car events with Ian’s Austen Healy. She sadly lost Ian to pancreatic cancer in 1990, but remained close with his daughter Karen and her husband Tom, becoming a grandmother to their two children, John and Cameron Smart.
Newly widowed, she moved to Clarkston to be closer to her children and her growing brood of grandchildren. She had been renamed “Mimi” by her first grandchild, and everyone in downtown Clarkston came to know her because she was actively involved in everything the Russell family did: softball picnics, recitals, band concerts, driving the children to practice, dance class, or to their friends’ houses with turtle-catching nets sticking out the back of her Volkswagen.
In Clarkston, Mimi volunteered for Lighthouse North and with the Friends of the Library. She eventually moved into a darling condo, and could regularly be seen power-walking around town. She was always devoted to a healthy lifestyle, and credits healthy eating and exercise with her long-term good health.
All of her grandchildren adored her. She was so much fun! And she encouraged each one of them to live up to their full potential. She recognized their strengths, affirming their best qualities and giving them the confidence to take on the world. She rarely looked back on life, only forward and she encouraged her grandchildren to do the same. Remember the good times and always make more of them. The past is over, and you shouldn’t let it define you.
In 2002, Mavis met the love of her life, Glenn Holiday. While most people would be settling into quiet retirement, Mavis and Glenn were ready to start a brand new chapter, full of adventure. They moved out of Clarkston and into a beautiful home in New Mexico. The home was built in a community that was part of the Cochiti Pueblo Reservation outside of Santa Fe, where her daughter Kathy lived. They also purchased a canal boat in the Netherlands, and spent four months of the year traveling through the canals, eventually ending their boat life in a small town outside of Paris.
Mavis and Glenn left Cochiti and spent some time in Tennessee, splitting the difference between Michigan and Alabama, where Glenn’s son Mike Holiday and his wife Yvonne lived. All of Glenn’s children had quickly welcomed Mavis with open arms when they were married, and she gained yet another loving family to enjoy. They were also close with Glenn’s daughter, Carol McIntyre, and her husband, Jim, of White Lake, and his daughter, Cathie Bedor, and her husband Jim, of Clarkston, and their respective families. She spoke so highly about all of them and enjoyed the happy times they spent together.
Eventually, they made their way back to Clarkston when, sadly, Mavis had been diagnosed with dementia. They decided to move into a place that she was very comfortable in – the same condo-complex she had lived in years ago as a single Mimi. Her diagnosis distressed her, but Glenn eased her worry as he cared for her with patience and grace. Mavis was his special lady, and she cherished her husband deeply. Fortunately, Mimi was able to hold on to her core memories, and the names of all of her loved ones until almost the very end. She lost the day-to-day details, but the important things were still there. It was a comfort to her family that the dementia didn’t rob her of that precious recognition.
Mimi will be remembered for her unconditional love, her impeccable sense of style and grace, and her unyielding perseverance. She had great style and was always well turned out, having the perfect outfit for every occasion, every hair in place, polishing off her look with a dazzling smile. She had a beautiful singing voice, and she loved old movies. She always had a knitting or stitching project close at hand, but her favorite hobby was reading. She was never without a book until the dementia robbed her of that ability; undoubtedly the thing she missed most during that final year. Finally, despite never being one to dwell on the past, Mimi was in the practice of journaling daily. She left behind a beautiful legacy in the form of a trunk-full of journals. She sometimes lamented that she may have missed her calling as a writer, and she encouraged her oldest granddaughter to pursue that skill from a very young age. She often said, “Someday Katy will turn my journals into a book… The Mimi Chronicles.” As this obituary concludes, and that very granddaughter reflects on the writing of it, she thinks that request can easily be upheld. Mimi’s life was full of adventure, and it was definitely one for the history books.A memorial will be held Saturday, February 4 at Community Bible Church, 1888 Crescent Lake Rd, Waterford, with visitation 10:30-11:30 a.m. and service at 11:30 a.m.