Mrs. Nicole "Niki" Yankee

On Thursday, June 25th 2020, Mrs. Nicole Ruth Yankee, deeply loving and amazing wife and mother of one child, passed away at the age of 51. Nicole Yankee or Niki, as she liked to be known, was born on June 11th 1969 at Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Luana Baxter and Steve Yankee. Niki graduated from Decorah Senior High School in Iowa with her class of '85 where she loved to work at the Information Media Center after classes were completed for the day. Through this love of media and information technology she eventually joined Great Lakes Video Services in June of 1989 where she found her calling and ultimately became the owner of the business, being the major driving force and inspiration behind the highly successful 30+ year old business! On June 11th 1992 Niki gave birth to her fantastic daughter and best friend Caitlin Yankee who she loved dearly and spent almost every waking hour with for 28 years. Niki was so proud and overjoyed to have been part of Caitlin's wedding in September 2019 at which Caitlin wed her husband Alec Martelle to become Caitlin Martelle. On March 4th 2010 Niki married the love of her life, Adam Roberts, who proudly took Niki's maiden name as his own to become Adam Yankee. They spent 11 magical years together and shared everything. Niki always said it was a fairytale come true like she had won the spiritual lottery and that Adam was her angel. Niki and Adam made many plans for the future and Adam, in honor of both of them, will continue to work at them in both their names, although they can not be together physically they will continue on spiritually until the time comes that they will meet again. On Earth, Niki truly was a beautiful, wonderful and altruistic blinding beam of white light that emanated around anyone she came into contact with. Niki lived to help others and courageously showed that to the world everyday exemplified with her family, friends and vocation. These parts of her life gave her so much joy and focus and she lived for them as they enabled her to give endlessly. In her own time Niki loved reading novels by Stephen King, Ann Rule and other horror and crime authors. She enjoyed re-reading her childhood Nancy Drew books over and over again. Niki was a child of the 80's and wore this as a badge of honor of the best decade to have ever graced the earth giving Niki such entertainment as Miami Vice, 21 Jump Street and late to the decade, Twin Peaks as well as the drenched in neon, carefree, highly stylized fashions and cutting edge music of the period which she so loved. Music was a great love of Niki's too centred around the great bands of the 80's from both the USA and the U.K; The Cure, The Clash, Motley Crew, Prince and The Depeche Mode to name a few. Niki also had an affinity for horror movies which she loved to watch and discuss with her husband for hours in which solace was found in many things they did together as each other's touch stones, always and in all ways S.O.U.L.M.A.T.E.S. The movie that both Niki and Adam agreed encapsulated both themselves as the two main characters and their relationship together by the film itself was the Studio Ghibli animated film called, 'Ponyo' - Niki's character was just like Ponyo, or Brunhilde as Adam affectionately called Niki which was Ponyo's birth name before Sosuke gave her the new name of Ponyo, attested to by herself. Adam's character was just like Sosuke ( the little boy ) with both their unshakeable need to be together no matter what. Niki's true dedication was with her daughter, Caitlin. They both grew up together learning different things from each other. mother and daughter became best friends through the years of love, laughter, nurturing and first time experiences. Niki and Caitlin mostly revelled in dancing together in the living room with the music they both shared a love for cranked up to the max!! Or conversing deeply while Niki cut and colored Caitlin's hair for a night out. Their relationship surpassed just simply mom and daughter in every way they were also best friends. Niki's testament to her stubborn purity came through at its finest when animals were involved. She loved animals to a fault and would see them with a respect and loyalty that most others could not. One example being, when she was just a child she was forced to go hunting with the family to which she made it abundantly clear that she was not happy with this even happening let alone being forced to go. So, every time an animal was lined up in the sights Niki would shout, " Go!! Go!! little animal!! Move!!! " therefore making their presence known and the animal would escape to safety. Niki is and will be tremendously missed, the heart of the family has been ripped out and it was too soon for everyone but you were called home for a reason and we will all be with you again in time. We love you Ruthington! Niki was preceded in death by her Grandmother, affectionately known as Grandma Ruthie and her Grandfather, Grandpa Chay who Niki loved so very much and spoke so endearingly and highly of. Niki is survived by her ever-loving husband, Adam Yankee, her only child, Caitlin Martelle and her spouse Alec Martelle, her brother Chay Yankee and his spouse Jessica Yankee who gave Niki her much adored two Nephews, Keegan 'Keegy-doo' and Caleb ' Cubba ' Yankee and niece Zoe 'Bell' Yankee - Niki loved us ALL with all her heart and she will always be with us. A celebration of Niki's compassionate and undeniably giving life will be held on Sunday August 9th 2020 at the Townsend Park Reserve in Rockford, Michigan at 11a.m. All who knew and loved Niki are happily invited to join us in wishing Niki nothing but love and heartfelt admiration of how she lived her faithful and selfless life, allowing her to finally gain her wings, thus completing her role into the angel we always knew she was on Earth.

Tributes

Mrs. Nicole "Niki" Yankee

June 11, 1969 - June 25, 2020