Marie was born on October 22, 1929 in Somerville, MA. She was the youngest of 4 children born to Theresa (Cataldo) Caruso and Dr. Septimio Caruso. Her siblings were Helen McPeck, Evelyn Gaeta, and Septimio H. "Setty" Caruso. She graduated from Somerville High School, Class of 1947, and attended Kathleen Dell Secretarial School. She worked as the Secretary to the Administrator at St. Elizabeth's Hospital before moving to Lever Brothers in Cambridge. It was there that she met and married the love of her life, our father, William "Vinny" Zukas, from Cambridge. She was introduced to him by his sister, Dorothy, and it was love at first sight. They were engaged for 9 months and married on January 22, 1955 in St. Clement's Church in Somerville. Two children, Billy and Terri, followed in June, 1956 and January, 1959. At that point mom quit work and devoted herself to the care of her family and upbringing of her children. She was very involved in St. Ann's Parish in Somerville, particularly the CYO, which she ran for 13 years. When not working CYO activities, she could be found as a den mother for brownies and girl scouts. And when she was not doing that, she was driving the nuns all over creation, doing their food shopping, taking them on their weekend prayer groups on Friday and picking them up on Sunday, and bringing them to their beach house in Cohasset.

In later years, when we kids were grown up, my dad purchased a business for her from one of his clients, called the Boston Telephone Answering Service. He thought it would be something to take up her time. She ended up working the business and retiring at age 62. She became the proud grandmother of 3 (Philip, Julie and Danny) and was always doing things for them. She used her social security money to pay for her grandson Philip's high school education at BC High, and to help Philip and Julie at St. Anselm's College. There was nothing she wouldn't do for those kids. She was the one who took the grandkids for their driver's license tests, too. When Danny passed in 2012, our hearts were broken once again.

Always the rather daring one, she was willing to take a chance and her favorite advice to us was if you want something you just go get it and everything else will work out. And it always did. When mom and dad retired, they bought time share weeks and took us with them all over the country on vacations. And after that, uncle Bob left us the Florida house and we began going there and she began to love Florida more and more. We ended up buying another house in 2017 which she really loved and she was particularly devoted to St. Benedict's Parish in Crystal River, Florida where most of her friends are now.

In later years she ran the Humarock Travelers, which was a travel group for seniors, and she planned many trips for people who still to this day comment about them.

In 2008, Mom became a great grandmother of Philip Hunt, IV. He was followed by Melanie Hunt, Hailey Rolhfing and Brooke Rohlfing. She so loved her great grandchildren who continued to call her "Ma". She is also survived by her loving son-in-law, Brian Smith.

Mom was conscious and alert right up until the end of her life and her wishes were that she wanted to die in peace. The day before she was taken out in the ambulance she told us "I'm halfway to heaven". She had such strong faith in the afterlife and she was so looking forward to seeing our father once more. She had the most incredible devotion to our dad, and she spoke about him all the time, as though he were still with us. But in a weak voice, she said to me just two days ago, "It doesn't look like I'm going to make it back to Florida so please let everyone know I will pray for them as soon as I get there. But know that my life is complete because I had two wonderful children, and the best husband in the world."

A Graveside Memorial Service will be held on Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. in the Couch Cemetery of Marshfield.

For online guest book and updated service information please visit the website macdonaldfuneralhome.com