Marie Regazzi of Garden City, New York, died at her home on August 13, 2026, surrounded by her family. She was 77.

Marie was born in New Hyde Park, New York, the daughter of James Ford and Louise Ford (née DeTurris). She graduated from Herricks High School and from St. John’s University School of Pharmacy, and earned a master’s degree in medical biology from Long Island University, and Molloy University, School of Nursing. 

Marie’s family was the center of everything. Her sons, John, Thomas, and Michael, and their wives, Danielle, Crista, and Gissel, had her attention and her devotion for as long as she was able to give it. She kept track of what was happening in each of their lives, and when any of them needed something, she was the one who found it. Her eight grandchildren had all of it. She followed what they were doing – the games, the school events, whatever they had taken up that season – showed up for it, and made sure they knew she was there. 

Marie was, above all, a woman who took care of people. Medicine was never simply a job to her; it was part of who she was, and it ran through her entire working life. She began as a medical technologist and went on to work in medical research and as a coordinator of nursing education, finding her footing in each new place as her husband John’s career took the two of them to Iowa and Illinois in their early married years, before they returned home to New York. Then, at the age of 50, she went back to university, earned her advanced degrees, and became a certified oncology nurse — the practice she had wanted all along. She spent nearly twenty years in hematology oncology, known as much for the comfort she offered patients’ families as for her clinical skill. When illness came to her own family — a brother, a sister, a niece, a nephew — Marie made it her personal mission to find them the right surgeon, the right treatment, the right answer. 

She was a woman of deep faith and service, an active parishioner and Eucharistic Minister at St. Joseph’s Church, as she had been at St. Thomas before it.

Marie loved a full house. Her Christmases were legendary – forty of fifty people coming and going, the house loud with it. She loved to host, and any occasion would do: Easter, a birthday, a barbecue in the yard. The more guests, the better.

Marie lived with Alzheimer’s disease for eight years. Not long after her diagnosis, she enrolled herself in two clinical trials, submitting to rigorous monthly treatment knowing full well it could not undo her own illness, in the hope that it might one day help someone else. She faced the disease as she had faced everything: without self-pity, and with her thoughts on other people. It took a great deal from her, but it never took her smile.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years, John Regazzi; her sons John (Danielle), Thomas (Crista), and Michael (Gissel); her grandchildren Chastlyn, Mikaela, John, TJ, Liliana, Amelia, Jaxson, and Noa; and her siblings Louise Callagy, Gary Ford, and James Ford. She was predeceased by her parents and by her sister Anita Morse.

Funeral arrangements are to be held on Friday, August 14, 2026 from 4 to 8 pm at Fairchild Sons Funeral Home. A mass is to follow at 9:45 am at the St. Thomas the Apostle Church on Saturday, August 15, 2026. Interment at Holy Rood Cemetery.