Mick and Marcella Mazur are the patriarch and matriarch of a family with deep roots in the Woodbury area. The couple has been married for almost 70 years, and have spent all those years living in the east Twin Cities suburbs.
The pair is long retired and living in the Oak Meadows Senior Living community in Oakdale. They had eight children, most of whom have settled in the eastern suburbs. Those eight children have also led to 23 grandkids and 24 great grandkids. They cherish having such a large family living so close by. “It’s wonderful because my husband can’t drive and I never drove, but with all the kids around we can usually find someone to take us where we need to go,” Marcella says.
Marcella, who stayed home until the kids were all grown up and later went to work at St. John’s Hospital, remembers Mick, who worked for a local plastics company, taking the kids to explore different neighborhood parks. They would come back with agate rocks.
With all the time they spent together as kids, the Mazurs’ children formed a close bond. Led by Marge Owen, who is the second oldest, the siblings come to Oak Meadows each holiday season for a special holiday event. “This is a very cool, very involved family,” says Kim Prayfrock, director of community relations at Oak Meadows. “They make tons of different Christmas cookies and set up an assembly line for the residents to come down and get a huge bag full.”
Marge, who is retired, has two children and two grandchildren. Her children live in the Twin Cities, but not as close as the other family members. However, she still has plenty of family to spend time with. “We enjoy being together and doing things as a family,” Marge says. “It is fun to see mom and dad with the great-grandkids.”
Another of the Mazurs’ children, Marlene Rosckes, knows how special it is just to have so many people close by. “It has always been fun,” she says. “It is great to be close, so we consider ourselves lucky.”
Marlene is also retired, but works part-time for the Minnesota Twins in guest services, which she has been doing for 23 years. She has three children and five grandchildren and particularly enjoys spending time at the parks in Woodbury, especially Bielenberg Sports Center. Her son, Jon Rosckes, has settled in Woodbury with his wife Allison and 4-year-old daughter Serena. Jon moved to California after college looking for something different, but came back after a year on the coast. “I felt like I was on an extended vacation out there, but it didn’t feel like home,” he says.
Jon shares that he felt like he grew up with extra siblings because he had so many cousins around. Over the holidays he remembers there being 20 cousins crammed into one room in the Mazurs’ house. He also feels like he watched Woodbury grow into a city right before his eyes. “Woodbury wasn’t there when I was a kid,” he jokes. At least the Woodbury he knows now.
The area is completely different than he remembers as a child, and those changes have made it a great place to raise his daughter. She likes to spend time at Central Park and the library, and also takes part in community recreation programs such as dance, soccer and ice skating.
At just 4 years old, who knows where Serena will end up? Perhaps she’ll be leading the next generation of Mazur family members to call the Woodbury area home.
