Louisa Marie (Piechowski) Mcfarlen

Louisa Marie Piechowski McFarlen, age 59, Grand Forks, ND, passed away May 2, 2019, at Mayo Methodist Hospital in the care of inpatient hospice.

The funeral will be Wednesday, May 8, at 11:00 a.m. at her childhood church, St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Fairmount, ND, with Father Scott Sautner officiating. Music will be provided by organist Mary Jane Pauly and vocalists Amanda Krutzig and Pinky Rubish.

Louisa will be laid to rest next to her brother in St. Anthony's Catholic Cemetery, rural Fairmount, ND.

Visitation will be Wednesday morning, one hour prior to the service at the church.

Louisa Marie was born three minutes before her twin sister Loretta on October 10, 1959, in Wheaton, MN. She grew up in Fairmount, ND, and graduated high school in 1978. She then entered the National Guard while attending North Dakota State College of Science where she obtained her LPN degree and then later obtained her RN. In 1982, she was united in marriage to Dennis McFarlen and they made their home in Fargo until he passed in 2007. After his passing, she was a travel nurse and worked in Texas and on the East Coast until she settled in Grand Forks, ND, where she resided until her death.

Louisa spent her 39-year career nursing others, including MeritCare, St. Luke's, Eventide, and Altru. She also was a teacher at Minnesota Community and Technical College for many years before her husband passed where she passed on her love of nursing to numerous nurses, many of whom are still in the area and she was happy to call a friend. Being a nurse, she knew how she would face the end of her life, and she faced it with humor, selflessness, and a few glasses of sangria. The nursing staff at Eisenberg 9-4 did their best to make her as comfortable as possible, but being a nurse, she was more concerned about the other patients as opposed to herself.

Louisa is survived by her fiancé, Dominic Acosta and his children, Ashley and Donovan of Grand Forks; sons, Jerry (Stacey) Piechowski and their children Katlyn, Denver, Aubrey, and Sawyer of Fargo, and Derek (Emilee) McFarlen and their daughter Sena of Cloquet, MN; her mother, Julie of Fargo; siblings, Loretta (Dylan) Moran, Andrea Piechowski, Melissa Nudell, Bruce Piechowski, and Rhonda Piechowski; along with many nieces and nephews; and her longtime Pekinese, Dexter.

She is preceded in death by her husband Dennis; father Leo; sister Lucinda Mae; brother Keith; aunts Doris and Angela; uncles Francis, John, Frederick and Robert; along with her maternal and paternal grandparents; and her Pekinese, Gypsy.