While working at a chemical manufacturing plant in Wyandotte, she met and fell in love with Robert Mulheisen, a Purple Heart awarded Marine, and they married in 1947. She worked as a teacher’s aide in Riverview, MI, and she set students straight in home economics class on how to cook.
She moved to Maine in 1994 and quickly became loved by St. John’s Catholic School students and parents alike, and became known as the Italian lunch lady who made the best pasta sauce and drove the big white 1979 Cadillac.
She was proud of her Italian heritage and made it her mission to be everyone’s Nonna, making her triple meat pasta sauce and passing it out to everyone near and far. She also enjoyed making cannolis for the holidays, classic Italian cookies including pizzelles, and of course the cure-all chicken soup for anyone under the weather, being sure to keep her freezer stocked with back up!
Nickolena is predeceased by her husband Robert in 1984.
She is survived by her three children, Paul Mulheisen and his wife Tina, Michael Mulheisen and his wife Judith, all of Riverview, MI, and Mary Jo Chapman and her husband Kimble of Monmouth. She is survived by five siblings Antoinette, 96, Catherine, 94, Josephine, 89, Nicholas, 86, and Peter, 80. She would proudly boast about all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to everyone and was so proud of all their accomplishments. Her five grandchildren are Christopher (deceased), Nichole, Erik, Megan, and Katherine and her six great-grandchildren are Marissa, Zoie, Travis, Lillie, Norah, and Annabelle.
She will be greatly missed by family and friends and all that called her Nonna. She was so generous with her love and was always thinking of others and sharing her kindness.
Family and friends are invited to attend services on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 11 a.m. at Stetson Funeral Home, 12 Federal St., Brunswick, with Rev. Rob Lupo officiating. Following the service there will be a celebration of her life in the Stetson’s Funeral Home Family Reception Center.
Memorial donations may be made in her memory in honor of Robert Louis Mulheisen to The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation at http://www.marine- heritage.org/ MakeDonation. asp. Please click on Make A Donation and under Tribute Information please click In Memory of Someone and use Nickolena Mulheisen as the name.
Memorial condolences may be expressed and a video tribute may be viewed at stetsonsfuneralhome.com.
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