Alanna Marie Bobulinski

“Tell me how he died?”

“I will tell you how he lived.”

These lines from the movie “The Last Samurai” strike a chord with me as I sit here contemplating how to write about my best friend, mother of my children, love of my life, soul mate, my beautiful wife, Alanna Marie (Melkulcok) Bobulinski.  Like the protagonist of that movie, Alanna was a true warrior and taken too early in life at 50 years of age.

Born to John Louis Melkulcok and Gloria Jean (Groover) Melkulcok of Susquehanna, PA on March 5, 1970 in Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA; she found herself the eldest of three in a family that travelled the world at the behest of the United States Government.  She graduated from Alexander M. Patch American High School on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany in 1988 and selected a university and area of study from a catalog.  This may have been where she picked up her love of shopping by catalog.

She chose to study Medical Technology at the Medical College of Virginia, where she essentially chose a life of analyzing fluids and waste products from sick or potentially sick human beings.  While this may have lent to her morbid sense of humor, she balanced her education on lab procedures with teaching college students the dangers of unprotected sex as a peer counselor.  Nothing says safety like putting a condom on a banana for practice.

Before earning her Bachelor of Science degree in May of 1993, she had travelled to Virginia Beach with her college roommate in September of 1992.  While there, her life took a turn onto a path that irrevocably changed the lives of two people, her future husband, Michael Sean Bobulinski, CDR, USN (ret.) and her father (who footed the bill for the wedding).  Described as tall, blonde, and athletic, but not her type, the two would first become friends and after a three year courtship that involved snorkeling trips along the gulf coast of Florida, a Moody Blues concert, a couple of Mardis Gras celebrations, a three bedroom apartment that became Mutual of Omaha’s home base for small animal kingdom, the two were married at the Chapel of the Centurion on Fort Monroe, VA, on December 2, 1995.  The reception that followed is the stuff of legend and is still talked about, to this day.

While her husband completed flight school and fleet replacement training, Alanna worked at two hospitals and a blood bank in the panhandle of Florida and later a hospital or two and a couple of “doc in a box” clinics in the Tidewater region of Virginia.  When her husband deployed, she filled her life as a military spouse by keeping the home fires burning and finding new and creative ways to spend their collective earnings on a future that was clear in her eyes, a family.  First step, in her mind, was to provide a place to live.  Her answer was to buy a plot of land and have a house built upon it.

Next step was to forget her peer counseling days and go for it.  After a few years of practice, Alanna and Michael were graced with three children, Kate Victoria and twins, Sara Michelle and Samantha Lynn.  Not wanting to have to pay for someone else to raise her daughters while her husband deployed wherever and whenever Uncle Sam directed, she hung up her lab coat to pursue a career as a full time Mom.  In this new career, she truly excelled providing her daughters with every possible tool they could need and quite a few full collections of toys.  She was a dance mom, a soccer mom, a PTA President, a Vacation Bible School Emcee, a Catholic Heart Work Camp mom, a Tae Kwon Do mom, a lacrosse mom, a volleyball mom, a cheer mom, and a professional beach bum.

It was while volunteering as PTA President that she discovered her next “job”, teacher.  She had already excelled in teaching her daughters to be strong, independent, creative, compassionate and loving women; it should come as no surprise to anyone that she was able to dive right into the role of elementary school teacher for the Virginia Beach City Public School system as a PALS instructor and eventually preschool teacher at Holy Spirit Catholic church where her passion for shaping young minds truly hit its stride.

If she wasn’t coming up with new and creative ways to prepare three and four year old children for entry into kindergarten, she spent her time crafting and selling her creations at local craft fairs and donating the earnings to local dance schools for children who couldn’t afford shoes, a joint effort between her and Sara.

Her faith in God would be challenged many times over the years while her husband was deployed, raising three daughters in an ever-changing world, and during her real journey as many came to know her battle with cancer.  BUT she never lost faith and she chose to live her life to the fullest despite the increasing challenges of a preordained death sentence that was the result of genetics vice life choices.

She took her daughters to dance recitals as the stage manager.  She took her daughters to major dance events hosted by Disney.  She took her daughters to tae kwon do tournaments in support of national competition.  She took her daughters to see the world in Europe and Central America.  The list goes on and on, but the golden thread throughout all her adventures was the unwavering love of life and a never quit mindset that she showed her daughters.

After dealing with grueling treatment after treatment over the span of nine years, God finally called to her and told her it was time to put down her sword and rest.  She had fought to live her life until the very end, preferring to put her daughters’ and often others’ needs before her own, whenever the cancer did not have her bedbound. 

She passed quietly in her sleep at her Virginia Beach home on the morning of October 17, 2020 surrounded by her husband and daughters, while the sounds of the surf crashing ashore on her favorite beach in Kill Devil Hills, NC played in the background.  She will find her final rest among the waves and swimming with the dolphins she so loved to watch off the shore of the Outer Banks in a small private ceremony.

Come celebrate her life with those she is survived by:  her Husband, Daughters, Mother, Father, Mother-in-Law (Karen Keller), Brother (Jeff Melkulcok), Sister (Susanne Arnold), Brothers-in-Law (Douglas Arnold and Anthony Bobulinski), Sisters-in-Law (Melinda Melkulcok, Stacia Bobulinski and Chanel Osborn), Nieces (Abigail Melkulcok and Lily Arnold), Nephews (Jonathan Melkulcok and Atlas Bobulinski), and her trusty English Bulldog (Li’l Brother) in a memorial service at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 1396 Lynnhaven Pkwy, Virginia Beach, VA, on Saturday, October 31, 2020 (her favorite day of the year, Halloween) at 11:00 am.  Please dress appropriately, including the wearing of COVID appropriate masks.  Church personnel will see to the social distancing requirements. Unfortunately, COVID restrictions prevent us from having a post mass reception.

Instead of sending flowers, consider donating to your favorite charity in Alanna’s name.  She would love to see donations go to fostering education, clean oceans, and cancer research.

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