Marilyn Louise Costa

Our sweet mom, Marilyn, age 91, of Verdi, Nevada, passed away in her home surrounded by family on January 16, 2025. She was born in Fresno, California to loving parents Margaret & Charles Fisher, joining her older sister, Charline. Marilyn studied at UC Davis and Fresno State University, and moved to the Reno area in 1956 after living for a few years in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Always eager to learn, she earned degrees in Speech Pathology & Audiology, and later, master’s degrees in Speech Pathology and Counseling & Guidance. Leading with her heart, much of her career was spent helping disabled children and their families. She was a counselor in the Washoe County School District prior to establishing her own practice as a family therapist. She made it her mission to help victims of domestic abuse, she volunteered for Planned Parenthood, campaigned for the ERA and was involved politically, working hard to support women’s rights candidates locally and nationally. Personally she was always there for those less fortunate; opening her heart & her home to those in need. She was a model of unconditional love.

The matriarch of our family, Marilyn was an adoring mother, and will be sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her three devoted daughters Deborah Calleros (Charles), Pamela Driggs-Lubambo (Romero), Gia Patsch (James); grandchildren Alex Calleros (Alek), Benjamin Calleros (Cecilia), Luisa Lubambo, Isabella Ilijasic & Fisher Ilijasic, and great grandson Miles Calleros.

Marilyn was witty, clever, determined, and generous. She loved to laugh, throw lavish parties, she was a creative entertainer, a gourmet cook, a master gardener, a lover of music and theater, and one who never shied away from any kind of physical or mental hard work. She thrived on challenges and loved a scotch & soda.

She embraced the Northern Nevada wilderness in all seasons, hiking, camping, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, bird watching, gardening, star gazing, and chopping wood. In 1975 she found her dream home with the Truckee River and Sierra Nevada mountains in her backyard, a view she enjoyed until her final sunrise.

We appreciate and are so grateful for the example she set for us in the way she lived; the way she embraced simple but important details putting time and effort into making things beautiful naturally. Her influence is obvious in the three daughters she raised on her own.

Her daughters would like to extend special thanks to Leslie Moya who was assigned as Mom’s physical therapist, but was so much more, offering her respect, kindness, skillful encouragement and support for over a decade; and to Espie Saenz, who gave warmth and loving care to Mom for over a decade. Both of these special women are truly part of our family.