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Life story

" Marleine Barriga Suhy, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt, passed away peacefully on September 28, 2026, with her family by her side. Born in Santiago, Chile, to Francisco Javier Barriga-Gonzalez and Elba Margarita Alvarez-Morales on January 8, 1937, Marleine lived a life defined by love, family, hard work, and an extraordinary ability to make a home wherever life took her.
Her story was, at its heart, a love story.
Marleine met her husband, Stephen Suhy at the Nabisco Cookie Factory in New Jersey in the early 1970s. He had recently graduated college and was managing machinery in the factory, while Marleine worked on the cookie line. It was love at first sight for him, and one can imagine that her heart was won by his sky-blue eyes. Their courtship began with love letters and visits with each other’s families. He eventually lost his job for spending too much time with Marleine at work, but what began at the cookie factory became a 54-year marriage and a lifetime of shared adventures.
Together, they built a life and raised their family, moving from New Jersey to Ohio, Maryland, the Philippines, Virginia, Morocco, and Greece before returning to Virginia. Their relationship was grounded in trust and a quiet understanding of one another, allowing each to pursue their own interests while always coming together around what mattered most - family. They were especially happy working side by side outdoors, raising their children, and creating a life together.
Marleine embraced every place she lived and the people and cultures she encountered along the way. Some of her most memorable adventures were found in the everyday rituals of life overseas, shopping for fresh vegetables, spices, and meats in the winding medina of Tangier, Morocco, or visiting the markets and shops of Kavala, Greece. She gathered experiences, traditions, and recipes wherever she went, bringing pieces of each place into her family’s life.
Wherever Marleine lived, she made a home.
She and her husband eventually built their Virginia home from the ground up. While he worked on the framing, Marleine was right there beside him, often bringing a picnic lunch to keep them going. That home became the gathering place for generations of family, filled with good food, conversation, and the familiar comfort of being together.
Her love was perhaps most easily recognized in her cooking. Friends and family often remembered their first meal at Marleine’s table, whether it was a comforting bowl of chicken soup, a sandwich piled high with cheese, meats, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles, or a homemade dessert such as nut rolls or leche flan. Her kitchen reflected the many cultures she had embraced. She learned Eastern European dishes from her husband’s mother, including pierogies and pigs in a blanket, and added Filipino lumpia, Moroccan lemon saffron chicken and harira soup, and Chilean chicken soup and empanadas to her repertoire.
Her dinner table was a world of its own. As a child, her family gathered around a table set with ceramic plates collected from places near and far, including Morocco and Greece. The food, the table, and the people seated around it were all part of the same expression of love. Marleine was happiest when her house was full of family, everyone gathered together, sharing a meal and making memories.
Marleine’s devotion to her family extended especially to her four grandchildren, three grandsons and one granddaughter. She helped raise two of her grandsons from their very first days, standing beside her daughter through the joys and demands of raising young children. She loved babies and delighted in caring for them, preparing homemade baby food, holding them close, and helping them discover the world. She taught them their first words and letters, helped them learn to read, and took them outside for walks and adventures.
As they grew, she remained a constant presence in their lives. She accompanied them on trips to botanical gardens and historic sites throughout Virginia, attended school celebrations from preschool through elementary school, was there for Grandparents Day and a high school graduation, and cheered them on at track and cross-country meets. Her patience, attention, and steady love helped shape the people they are today. Some of her most treasured moments were the simple ones: holding her grandchildren, watching them grow, and being part of their everyday lives.
Marleine gave that same devotion to the land around her. An extraordinary gardener with a tireless spirit and a remarkable green thumb, she transformed the four-and-a-half acres surrounding her home into gardens she created largely from scratch. Roses, lilies, daffodils, azaleas, and mums flourished under her care, alongside countless plants shared by friends and neighbors. Native Virginia cacti, irises of every color, and unexpected plants seemed to pop up throughout the property as she continually experimented, planted, cleared, and nurtured.
She could work outdoors all day, cutting, chopping, and clearing brush to make room for something new. Never afraid of hard work, she even put to use a machete she had brought home from the Philippines. Her hands were strong, not carefully manicured, but shaped by a lifetime of labor. They were hands that worked the earth, grew beautiful things, prepared meals from scratch, and held the people she loved.
Those hands tell much of Marleine’s story. She was a woman who did not simply watch life unfold around her; she participated in it fully. She built, planted, cooked, taught, nurtured, and cared for the people and places entrusted to her. Her love was practical and enduring, expressed through the things she did every day.
In her final years, Marleine remained in the home she and her husband had built. She continued to enjoy her beloved garden, walking among the plants she had nurtured for so many years, until eventually finding her place on the porch. Even then, she remained surrounded by the home, the land, and the family that meant everything to her.
Marleine fiercely protected her family. They always came first. Her legacy is found not only in the home she built, the gardens she grew, and the recipes she passed along, but in the generations she helped raise and the countless ways she made those around her feel cared for. She leaves behind memories of a life lived with strength, curiosity, generosity, and a deep and abiding love.
Wherever the world took Marleine, she made a home. And wherever her family gathers, around a table filled with food, sharing stories, tending a garden, or simply spending time together, a part of her will always be there.
She will be deeply missed and forever loved.
Marleine is survived by:
Her beloved husband, Stephen Michael Suhy; her two daughters, Scarlett Suhy-Pons and Grissell Alegria; her four grandchildren, Diego and Cairo Pons and Eva and Marcelo Alegria, her sister, Elba Margarita Contreras and brothers Manuel Barriga and Francisco Barriga. "