1957-2024
Theresa (Teri) Marie Mercier of Traverse City passed away on Saturday, February 24th at home with her family by her side. Teri is survived by her husband of over 48 years, Jerry Mercier.
She is also survived by her son Jeremy Mercier of Colorado and his wife Erika, her daughter Kristy (Mercier) Schmittling of Rockford and her husband Ben, and her son Ryan Mercier of Maple City.
She was blessed to have 3 grandchildren, Hayden Schmittling of Rockford, Lena Mercier of Colorado and Levi Schmittling of Rockford. She has 3 surviving siblings, Cindy Lucksted and her husband Gary of Fairbanks, Alaska, Dave Palm and his wife Kat of Redondo Beach, California and Steve Palm.
Teri was born in Wayne County, Michigan and was an adopted child of Clarence and Vicky Palm, both deceased, and spent her early years in Southeast Michigan. Her family moved up to Topinabee, Michigan and she attended and graduated from Pellston High School.
Teri’s passions were her family, her love of cooking, her desire to see the world, and her loving care of children. She worked as a caterer at the Higgins Lake Association, a kitchen aide at Houghton Lake Schools, worked at Mary’s Kitchen Port in Traverse City, was a nurse’s aide at Mishawaka, Indiana schools and an instructional aide at Sutton Bay Schools.
While living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for almost 14 years, she opened and operated her own daycare for children called “Terific Kids Day Care” in which she put together a prekindergarten program for children and consistently had a waiting list to attend.
Her and her husband moved back to Traverse City in June of 2020 and have had a very blessed life. She always saw the best in people and brought her shining light into everyone’s life. She loved the water and spending time on it, either reading, just going for a boat ride, fishing or swimming with the kids.
Her favorite saint was Mother Teresa and Teri had a very similar servant heart. If you have a desire to donate anything, we know Teri would prefer that it would go to children or those in need such as Hospice of Michigan, Compassion International or the Women’s Resource Center in Traverse City.
We will have her celebration of life gathering at a date yet to be determined.
