Marlene Rita Geiser

Surrounded by her family, Marlene Rita Geiser passed away peacefully on Sunday, 15th of May 2016. Marlene was born in Zurich, Switzerland, April 26th 1933, and  she grew up in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland with her beloved grandmother,  her aunts, and uncles. She is survived by her two older sisters Hilde Zwygart and Heidi Loosli.

In 1953 she married Johann Josef Vogel in Pfaffnau, Bern, Switzerland. Over the next few years, and over three different countries she had five children: Christine, John, Peter, Charles, and Rita as she moved with her husband to Canada, the USA, and Australia, where they separated and eventually divorced. After joining the LDS Church she decided to return to America with her children, which made for a modern pioneering tale.

She led an exciting life with lots of challenges and many sorrows at times.  In moving from Switzerland to the U.S., she had to learn a new language and the customs of a new country. To help care for her growing family she learned to drive and started and grew a number of successful businesses in Florida, including lawn care, house cleaning, and custom sewing.  She was also an exceptional elementary grade school teacher, helping many children to overcome their reading difficulties and to gain a love for learning.  Later, she also trained and worked as a nurse where her compassion and skills blessed many. Marlene loved to read and learn. It was this and the need for better employment and her understanding of the use of medicinal herbs that led her into the fields of Naturopathy and Homeopathy. Her practice in these health fields led her to meet her second husband Bill Wiley.

Her gift of healing, her growing health expertise, combined with her love of the gospel, led to her founding a ministry whose mission was to help people with their health needs. She loved to teach, minister, and care for people from all walks of life. She had a wealth of nutritional and natural health expertise and experience, which she put to use, along with the Lord’s help, to seek solutions for people’s health problems. Thousands of clients she served can testify to her skills and love and success in this ministry.

In 1997, a few months after the death of her second husband, Bill Wiley, she sustained a spinal cord injury which left her paralyzed, but which did not slow her down.   While she no longer criss-crossed the country meeting with clients and giving seminars, she continued her ministry--studying, writing, and caring for others.  She wrote and published five books:  You Can Survive It All; From Crisis to Victory: A Warrior’s Handbook; A Christian Life; How to Grow to Spiritual Maturity; Stories of My Life:  An Autobiography; and a forthcoming book on Revelation which was in the process of writing at the time of her passing.

While her own childhood and young adulthood were notable for their hardships and harshness, she went on to meet the many challenges of being a single mother, raising five children mostly by her own efforts. She rose above all the many challenges a single mother confronts with her tremendous faith, optimism, determination, and great sense of humor.   Combined with her love of beauty and nature—birds and blooms, especially!—she created a heaven on earth for her children wherever and whatever life demanded of them.   Her greatest joy and happiness and her constant prayers were centered on her five children, twenty-one grandchildren, and thirty-one great grandchildren.  Their accomplishments and good lives were her greatest joy; their struggles were the focus of her great faith and many prayers on their behalf.

The family wishes to express their gratitude for all who helped make the past years of our Mother’s life ones of sweet caring and love.   Thank you for the outpouring of love and prayers for Marlene and her family.  Memorial services will be Friday, May 20th, 2016, at 11:00 a.m. at the Wheeler Mortuary, 211 East 200 South in Springville, Utah. Respecting her request, there will be no public viewing.  Interment will be at the Historic Springville Cemetery following the services.