Nora Ann O’Melia Bluhm

Nora Ann O’Melia Bluhm, 87, died among those who loved her on May 13, 2025, at her residence in the memory care unit of Alexian Village in Milwaukee.

She was a giant, a loving and tolerant wife, a mother for the ages. She had no rivals, but she did have love. She had strength beyond any normal measure. She lived a beautiful life, giving much more than she even received. She raised five children and taught them to live and to love one another, and she succeeded remarkably in that effort. Her goodness was real, and it was manifestly obvious to everyone who knew her. She sacrificed herself for her family. She loved every holiday ever invented, and she decorated her home with Christmas lights and Easter bunnies and Halloween goblins and anything else that resembled a celebration large or small.

She graduated magna cum laude from Marquette University and gave up law school to be a wife and mother. Those who knew her growing up in Rhinelander remember that she broke a rib going off a water ski jump that was part of a summer entertainment program she developed on Boom Lake. She taught women how to swim as part of a Red Cross class in Hawaii. Every spring, you could find her in the backyard smelling the lilacs.

In July, she’d be on the porch of her beloved Lake George cottage enjoying peanut butter toast in the morning or a glass of white wine in the evening. She never failed to keep the pretzel jar at the entrance to the kitchen fully stocked, something neighborhood friends still remember decades later. She had a gleam in her eyes that exuded a deep love for family, friends, and the small joys in life.

She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Donald; her children, Christopher, Andrew (Sara Lipow), Patrick (Samantha Watson), Mary (Daniel Aussem) and Michael (Kristin Anderson), 14 grandchildren, three sisters, four brothers, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

A heartfelt and deep thank you to the nurses and staff on the third floor at Alexian Village who so lovingly cared for her in her final three years. A special thank you to Carla, her Horizon hospice nurse, who watched over her in the final months.

A visitation and celebration of life will be held at Holy Family Parish in Whitefish Bay on Saturday, June 21. Visitation 9:30 to 11 a.m., Mass 11 a.m.