Maria A Kaiser

Mrs. Maria A. Kaiser, 84, of Fayetteville, died Monday, March 25, 2013, but her kind and generous spirit lives on.
She was born Maria Auguste Bertha Emma Mahler in August 1928 in Suderbruch, Germany.  As a teen, she loved to dance and read.
When her future husband, Reinhold Kaiser, first asked her to marry she turned him down because she wanted to be a librarian and travel the world.  They later married after he had immigrated to America and joined the U.S. Army.  They had a son, Jens.
Mr. Kaiser died in a parachuting accident at Fort Bragg in 1973.  At the age of 45, Mrs. Kaiser learned to drive a car and got a job.  She became a cook at a department store at the new Cross Creek Mall.  After a day on her feet, she would come home and bake cakes to relax.  She and her son traveled extensively.
When she retired, she focused on growing plants and flowers in her yard.  She raised many stray cats and dogs that wandered onto her property.  She loved to read nonfiction, particularly U.S. history and politics.
Her beloved son died in 2006.  Mrs. Kaiser continued to live alone until falls required her to move to Haymount Rehab & Nursing Center. Until recently, she still read the Fayetteville Observer daily and worked crossword puzzles in German.
She is survived by her brother. Herbert Mahler and his wife, Mariechen, who still live in the ancestral home in Suderbruch, Germany; her sister-in-law, Ruth Lange-Kaiser and partner Herbert Kindt, also of Suderbruch; many devoted nieces and nephews who knew her as “Tante Ria”; and many friends of her son from high school and college.  
A private memorial service is planned later.
Services entrusted to Sullivan’s Highland Funeral Service & Crematory of Fayetteville.