With the deepest sadness, we are announcing that another beloved member of America's Greatest Generation, Sylvia Metea, passed away after a relatively short battle with cancer on 22 November 2020, at age 95.

Sylvia Metea was born on 20 October 1925 to Victor and Rozeta Maxim in their house at 3000 Roulo Street in Dearborn, Michigan. Both Victor and Rozeta were raised and married in the Fagaras area of Transylvania, Romania. Victor immigrated to America circa 1915, and Rozeta followed him circa 1922. Although English was Sylvia's first language, through her parents she learned to fluently read, write, and speak Romanian.

Sylvia's parents owned and worked in a small general-goods store on the corner of their block.  Victor worked as a tool-and-die maker and at Ford Motor Company's Rouge plant. The Great Depression brought hard times, and while Sylvia had few toys, she had many friends. "The Izzy Dizzy Bombers," as she and her childhood friends Rosemary, Zifka, and Isabel called themselves, played school sports as well as those many evening neighborhood games that unknowingly create lifelong friendships.

Sylvia graduated from Dearborn's Fordson High School in 1943 and got a job at 17 with the United States Army Air Force. The USAAF temporarily moved her to Chicago, Illinois for training as a card punch (or "keypunch") operator. As this was the B.C. (Before Computers) era, the military used keypunch card machines to enter data into tabulating machines for the intense WWII struggle even before the first modern computer was invented. It was an early foray into pre-computer technology which Sylvia very much enjoyed. Her work helping the US Department of Defense would not last too long, however, because a man named Vasile "Charles" Metea (also known as "Charlie") was soon to enter her life.

Charlie was born on 27 December 1916 in Gary, Indiana, but when he was about two years old his family moved back to Ileni, Romania, their tiny Transylvanian village near Fagaras. Charlie migrated back to America in 1937, living with relatives about one block from Sylvia. Although Charlie was almost nine years older than Sylvia, they knew each other from the neighborhood. As he later told his children, "When I went away to war, your mother was just a neighborhood kid. When I returned from war, she was a woman." They married on 8 November 1947.

Charlie and Sylvia did their part in creating the mid-Twentieth-Century American experience. Starting in the late 1940s, they churned-out children at regular two-year intervals like a Detroit factory line; first Chuck, then Jeanette, Cheryl, Renee, and finally — her baby, Mark. In 1952, they bought a small house in a brand-new Dearborn development at 1530 Culver Street.

With seven people living in a 900-square-foot house, privacy was a rare commodity, so whenever Charlie and Sylvia needed a private conversation, switching to the Romanian language made for a convenient way to leave all children in the dark.

For most of her life, cats were a constant companion, from Cleo in the early 1960s to Bogie, who gave Sylvia devoted company for 15 years late in her life. Although she never kept more than two or three permanent cats, in the 1960s the occasional litter of kittens would produce a rather lively but random décor; the clawed kittens conducted races to the top of the curtains, and upon opening the front door one might be face-to-face with a small kitten attached by claws to the screen door. Sylvia was known to break off from an ongoing dinner conversation and turn to a grandchild next to her merely to announce, "I just love cats." This love for cats has become a multi-generational legacy, passed on from Sylvia to children to grandchildren.

Around 1950, Charlie and his brother Dennis Metea established Metea's Bar in Detroit. Charlie worked long hours there while Sylvia stayed home to raise the five small children. Starting in the 1960s, Sylvia worked at a Jacobson's department store, then at the nearby Oakwood Hospital (now Beaumont), and finally, at Greenfield Village until she retired in the 1990s. She made close, lifelong friends with co-workers such as Clara. Everyone who worked with Sylvia loved her for her friendliness, good cheer, integrity, and hard-work ethic.

The foundation of Sylvia's being was her faith in God, and she also raised her children in that faith. Sylvia was brought up in the Romanian Eastern Orthodox religion but around 1961 became a lifelong member of the Dearborn Free Methodist church. Sylvia taught Sunday School, helped in the church's nursery and with Vacation Bible School, and was a counselor at the church's summer camp near Jackson, Michigan. Attending a weekly women's Bible-study group as well as other church activities several times per week for several decades formed rich, deep companionships with her closest friends, Betty, Beverly, and another Clara.  Sylvia faithfully read the Bible and prayed often. Sylvia's faith was her core.

On 28 November 1979, her life-long love Charlie, the only man Sylvia ever loved, passed away from lung cancer. Sylvia continued living in their home for the rest of her life, and it became a central meeting place to host her kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren. She was a wonderful cook, enjoyed collecting many, many recipes, and was never shy about offering food to any visitor who walked through the door. Her gracious family social events, particularly warm summer evenings on the back patio with a Snow Woods backdrop, have left innumerable beautiful memories for all who were fortunate enough to be there.

Sylvia belongs to that dwindling generation of Americans whose character was forged in the crucibles of the Great Depression and World War II, a generation born of hard-working immigrant parents who started with nothing but a dream. At a very young age they learned the meaning of character, sacrifice, and relentless strength of will. Sylvia embraced these concepts, subliminally instilling them into her descendants by serving as their embodiment.

The 68 years that Sylvia lived in her home gave her children an underlying, subconscious sense that regardless of where they were, the world always had a center somewhere, there was always one special place that was the bedrock-foundation home. That special place — that large, accommodating heart — it now resides in heaven with her relatives and friends, with each and every one of her cats, and after 41 long years without him, with the love of her life, Charlie.

Sylvia was predeceased by her husband Vasile "Charles" Metea, parents Victor and Rozeta, and siblings Virgil and Loretta. Sylvia's passing leaves an empty place in the hearts of all who knew her, most intensely her children Charles Arthur (spouse Pamela) Metea, Jeanette Elizabeth (James) Vander Poel, Cheryl Lynn (Gregory) Cooper, Renee Janelle (David) Schmidt, and Mark Brian (Rebecca) Metea. Surviving grandchildren include Courtney Vander Poel, Kyle (Laura) Vander Poel, Bryce (Alexis) Vander Poel, Andrew Jonathan (Rebecca) Cooper, Corey Michael Cooper, Rachel Renee Metea, and Zachary Elliott Metea. Finally, Sylvia also leaves behind a legacy of six great-grandchildren who, in the far-distant decades of this century or even the next, will one day be privileged to play with Great-Grandmother Sylvia, whom they really didn't get a chance to know.

Sylvia will be interred at Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit next to her beloved Charles, parents, and sister. In lieu of flowers, Sylvia would have very much enjoyed people donating to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) or the American Cancer Society. Funeral services are private, but the family hopes to have a memorial service in Dearborn sometime next year after the current Covid-19 pandemic safely subsides.