Margaret Rabiah

RABIAH, Margaret Elizabeth, age 88, passed away at her home in Flint, Michigan on October 11, 2021.

The daughter of Margaret and Charles Hrbek, Margaret was born in 1933 in Mineola, New York, and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University (RN) and Seton Hall University (BS). While working at the Jersey City Medical Center, Margaret met her future husband, Fouad A. Rabiah, M.D., a surgical resident from Baghdad, Iraq. They married in 1957 and lived in Detroit, Baghdad, and Leavenworth (Kansas) before settling in Flint.

Margaret was a loving wife who pursued her nursing career full-time until starting her family. She devoted her life to her husband, children, and grandchildren while also volunteering her talents and time. Margaret served as a school nurse, a girl scout troop leader, and a docent at the Flint Institute of Health. She actively participated in the Genesee County Medical Society Auxiliary for many years and was president from 1975-76. For more than a decade, she volunteered at the Kraphol Senior Center as a Michigan Medicare/Medicaid counselor and an application assistant for MiCAFE, where she was recognized in 2007 for her important efforts. In her final years, she knitted thousands of baby hats for the patients of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Hurley Medical Center.

Together with her husband, and after his death, Margaret was a loyal patron of the Flint Institute of Arts.

Margaret is survived by four children: Janan Rabiah (Stephen Haydon) of Fort Worth, Texas; Peter K. Rabiah, M.D. of Evanston, Illinois; Susan Rabiah of Bend, Oregon; and Jennifer Rabiah (Daniel Harmon) of New York, New York. Also surviving are her two grandchildren, William Rabiah Harmon and Sarah Rabiah Harmon, both of New York, New York; and a longtime dear family friend, Victoria Ybarra. Margaret was preceded in death by her husband and their daughter, Baby Girl Rabiah; her parents; and her brothers, Charles and Peter Hrbek.

Memorial donations may be made to the Flint Institute of Arts.