Ann Strazik passed away peacefully in the care of Hospice after a stay in the hospital to fight a virulent virus. She lived 97 relatively healthy and active years, taking care of herself for the most part right up until God called her.

Ann, the first child of August and Anna Cernicky, was born and raised in Belle Vernon, PA along with her siblings, Augie and Irene. She was in the first graduating class of North Belle Vernon High School. She met her beloved husband, Frank, when she was 15 years old and he came 'over the mountains' from Johnstown, PA to a family gathering in Belle Vernon. After a four year long-distance courtship, Frank's car couldn't make those trips to Belle Vernon any longer so they got married. Thus began their married life together that lasted until Frank's death in 1988. Ann gave birth to two sons, Bill in Johnstown and Tom in Belle Vernon. After a trip to Florida, Frank convinced Ann to move to Miami where he told her 'even the dirt was clean' and 'they would never go hungry because they could fish for their food'. They packed up their car and their two young children, left all their family behind, and started their lives in Florida in 1948. From 1948, except for a 5 year stay in Massachusetts to be closer to Bill and his wife Joanne and their two young children, they lived their entire lives in Florida.

If Ann had one characteristic that dominated all others, it was her compassion for and her desire to help others. Throughout her life Ann was always devoted to her family and her Catholic Church. She provided the care, the understanding, the support, and the deep love that immensely helped her husband and her children get through the good and the tough years. She brought her parents from Pennsylvania to live with her in Miami and took care of her mother when her father died. After her husband died, Ann cared for her son, Tom, until his death. She was an excellent cook and homemaker. But her desire to help others extended beyond her family to just about anyone who needed a friend or needed some help of any kind. She was the President of the Blue Ladies who helped with patients in the hospitals, she helped children in the schools attended by her boys, and she was President of the Women's Club that helped with various projects in her community. She served on many committees and worked on many projects for her church, among them providing comfort and taking Holy Communion to the homebound and providing transportation for those who had no way to get to church. Putting the needs of others ahead of her own was her defining characteristic. She always preferred to give rather than to receive.

Ann was successful at several different jobs she undertook to earn money for the family. She helped her husband in the small neighborhood grocery store they owned. She worked as a cashier at K Mart and Grand Union in Florida and as a bookkeeper for Grand Union in Florida and for St. Luke's Retirement Home for Women in Springfield, MA.

In her spare time, Ann enjoyed having fun. Whether it was hosting parties in her home, having picnics at the beach, playing various card games with friends, partaking in various games of chance, playing computer games, or attending family gatherings and Strazik reunions, she was always ready to laugh and have fun ………. as she would wish us to do today.

Ann is preceded in death by her husband, Francis E. Strazik; son, Thomas A. Strazik; brother, August M. Cernicky, Jr.; and her parents August, Sr. and Anna Cernicky.

Those left to cherish her memory are her son, William (Joanne) Strazik of Pensacola, FL; sister, Irene (Michael) Procko of Port Charlotte, FL; grandchildren, Edward (Nancy) Strazik of Dighton, MA and Dianne (Sean) Quigley of Pace, FL; great-grandchildren, Frank and Michael Strazik, and Ryan and Alyssa Quigley.

A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1:00pm Saturday, March 02, 2019 at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, 9945 Hillview Dr, Pensacola, FL 32514.

The family offers special gratitude to Dr. Amy Doyle, hospitalist at Sacred Heart Hospital Pensacola and to the staff at Covenant Care Inpatient Hospice Center at Sacred Heart Hospital.