Merry Noordam, 62

July 29, 1948 - Oct. 2, 2010

On Oct. 2, 2010, Merry was called home to be with the Lord while her family sat at her side. She had been fighting a courageous battle with cancer that couldn't be overcome.

Merry was born in Bonners Ferry, to Bill and Alice Phelps on July 29, 1948. She was raised most of her life in the Silver Valley graduating from Mullan High School in 1966. She married her high school sweetheart Robert Noordam on Aug. 19, 1966, and they just recently celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary.

They relocated to the Coeur d'Alene area in 1976 where they raised their three children. Merry obtained a real estate license in 1976 and ran her own brokerage for many years until eventually following her true passion (a passion she shared with her father) to become an auctioneer in 2003.

She is survived by her mother and stepfather, Alice and Bob Hackett, Boise; her sister and brother-in-law, Linda and Jerry Noordam, Mullan; her husband, Robert Noordam; three children: Bill, his wife Cheryl and their two sons Tyler and Jeremy, Dave, his wife Brandy and their four children, Cassidy, Montgomery, Tyra and Layla, her daughter, Julie Groves, husband Stan and their three children, Summer, Dakota and Paris, all here locally. She was preceded in death by her father, Bill Phelps.

She was an amazing woman, a great wife, wonderful mother and loving grandmother. She always put everyone else's needs ahead of her own and will be sorely missed by all who knew her, until we join her again one day.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Friday Oct. 8, 2010, at English Funeral Chapel in Post Falls. Donations can be made in her name to Hospice or the Kootenai Cancer Center.

Please visit Merry's online memorial at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.