Vida Babette Makowski

VIDA BABETTE MAKOWSKI PhD, RN, LMFT

BORN 1 OCTOBER 1937   DIED 30 MAY 2023

Vida was born in Washington DC to William and Anna Mecier.  She is the oldest of three children.  Her dad was in the Air Force so they moved around quite a bit while she was growing up.  Washington DC, Panama, Massachusetts, Kansas, California, Thailand were some of the locations the family moved to. 

In 1953 her dad was stationed at Roslyn Air Force Base on Long Island in New York State and she attended High School in Farmingdale where she met Maciej J Makowski. They started dating and they both graduated from HS in 1955.  At the end of the summer of 1955 they became engaged however the Mecier family moved to Camarillo CA as her dad was assigned to Oxnard Air Force Base.

 Vida attended nursing school at Methodist Hospital in Los Angeles and received her RN credential in September of 1958.  She married Maciej June 22, 1957 and their oldest daughter was born September 17, 1958, Vida then joined Maciej in Cambridge MA where he had a year remaining to earn his degree.  She worked at Boston Children’s Hospital while Maciej completed his degree at MIT.

In 1959 Vida and family moved to Manhattan Beach California.  They lived in a variety of locations as the family grew including Torrance, Portuguese Bend, and Rolling Hills Estates.  Vida worked at a number of hospitals doing critical care nursing and OB GYN nursing as well as acting as charge nurse of a locked Psych Ward. 

In 1975 she decided to extend her education and attended Cal State Dominguez Hills, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Behavioral Science and after an internship her License and a Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT).

In 1978 the family moved to Santa Ynez and Vida continued her education at Sierra University earning a

PhD in Clinical Psychology.  She founded the non-profit Family Life Counseling Service (FLCS), which became the best performing counseling service in Santa Barbara County.  FLCS supplied mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence treatment to both private and court ordered clients.  FLCS had, by far, the lowest recidivism rate of any agency in Santa Barbara County.

In 1988 the family moved to a ranch between Buellton and Lompoc and continued with raising and riding Arabian horses, which they had started in 1972 while living in Rolling Hills Estates.   Vida continued with he mental health work and also supplied training to the local Santa Ynez Valley Hospice.

In 2003 Vida decided to retire and the ranch was sold and Vida and Maciej moved to Page AZ where Vida served on the city council and as President of the Page Concert Association. 

Vida and Maciej travelled to CA frequently to visit with children and grand children so in 2013 they moved back to the Central Coast and settled in Nipomo, where Vida and Maciej lived until Vida’s death in 2023.

Vida and Maciej were happily married for 66 years.  Vida is survived by her husband Maciej, 6 of her 8 children, and 19 grand and great grand children.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Vida Babette Makowski, please visit our floral store.