April 6, 1964 - June 30, 2024
A resident of Leelanau County, Rasa Poorman passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 30,2024 at her Home in Maple City, Michigan after a three and a half year battle with ovarian cancer. She passed peacefully with her husband at her side along with a small group of family and friends.
Rasa was a 1982 graduate of Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan and a 1987 graduate of Wayne State University majoring in Occupational Therapy. Her focus was rehabilitation of the hand and she became a board certified hand therapist (CHT).
Rasa was passionate about her work. She spent a good deal of her career sitting on the board of the Michigan Society of Hand Therapists and was instrumental in the continuing education of most of Michigan’s hand therapists.
In the mid-80s, Rasa met Glenn Poorman and in 1988 the two married. Over the course of their 36 year marriage, Glenn and Rasa skied every winter traveling either to the western United States and Canada or to Europe where they skied Austria, Switzerland, and France. Rasa also became a mountain climber traveling to some of the highest mountains on three continents including several of Colorado’s 14ers, Mount Rainier, Kilimanjaro, and Aconcagua. In the late 90s, she spent several years doing volunteer work at the Center for Animal Research and Education in Texas caring for rescued big cats. In 2003 she stumbled upon a newborn tiger who’d been rejected by her mother. The CARE staff nursed the cub back to health and named her Rasa after the person who found her.
After several unsuccessful attempts at having children, Glenn and Rasa became a billet/host family for the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers and the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
The boys, ages 16-20, had to travel far from home to play in these programs and would require a home to live in and attend school. Rasa developed deep relationships with the boys during their stay becoming a 2nd mother to them. They’ve kept in touch ever since with several of the boys moving on to play in the NHL, AHL, or ECHL.
During her final weeks, Rasa often mentioned that although she would have liked more time, she felt she’d lived three lives and was grateful for all she was able to do and all of the people she developed friendships with along the way.
Rasa is survived by her loving husband of 36 years Glenn; her father Jouzas Orentas; her brother Linas (Vida) Orentas; her sister Daiva (David) Lukasiewicz; her sisters-in-law Jayne (Donald) MacDonald, Phyllis (Tom) Tiderington, and her nephews/ nieces Joe Tiderinton, Michael (Emily) Tiderington, Ryan Tiderington, Brian MacDonald, Aleksa (Jim) Coffey, Tadas (Claire) Lukasiewicz, Matas Lukasiewicz, Andrius (Isamarie) Lukasiewicz, Ugne (David) Nordstrom, Stasys Orentas, and Migle Orentas.
She was preceded in death by her mother Rasa Marija Orentas.
In lieu of flowers, those wishing to express their sympathy may wish to consider a memorial donation to the Center for Animal Research and Education (CARE) in Bridgeport, TX.
(www.carerescuetexas.com/how-to-help).
