Sylvia Dolores Malicki

Sylvia Dolores Malicki, age 97, of Darien. Predeceased by her parents Joseph Malicki and Apolonia Malicki, nee Wielondek; her siblings Alfred (Mary Jane) Malicki, Monica (Joseph) Voldan, Hillard (Virginia, Helen) Malicki, Helen (Charles) Purcell, Elinor (Carl) Whiting, Chester (Dorothy) Malicki, Richard (Florence) Malicki, Marvin (Claudia) Malicki and Donald (Marilynne) Malicki. Sylvia has 22 nieces and nephews and many grand and great-grand nieces and nephews.

Memorial Visitation Monday, December 10, 2018 from 9:30 A.M. to time of Mass 10 A.M. at St. Louise de Marillac Church, Corner of Raymond and 30th, La Grange Park.

Interment Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Hillside.

Contributions in Sylvia’s memory can be made to Paralyzed Veterans of America, 7 Mill Brook Road, Wilton, NH 03086 or The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL 60532.

Arrangements entrusted to Hitzeman Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 9445 W. 31st Street, Brookfield, IL 60513.

Information 708-485-2000 or www.HitzemanFuneral.com

Sylvia was granted a long and productive life and devoted hers to family, friends and faith. She relished every day, with curiosity and a desire to learn about, explore and generously share life’s riches with those around her. Blessed with a magnetic and theatrical personality, coupled with famously impeccable taste and style, she enjoyed traveling the country and the world. She wove her lifetime of experiences into dramatic yet comic storytelling that left her listeners entertained and hungry for more.

Steeped in a traditional Roman Catholic background common to so many European immigrants such as her Polish parents, Sylvia’s childhood was shaped by the economic privations imposed by the Depression on a family of ten children and her young adulthood was molded by the realities of a world war. Depression and war created in her a robust patriotism together with a vigorous drive to care for and protect the many friends and family members she loved. Sylvia doted on her parents and adored each of her siblings. Her friendships were strong and most often lifelong, as was her unwavering religious faith.

Sylvia began her work life like so many do: small jobs in local shops, then a clerical position in a downtown office. She then devoted nearly 40 years of her life to one company, Chicago Extruded Metals, rising steadily by virtue of demonstrated ability and hard work to the highest administrative position in the executive suite.

Later, her retirement freed her to focus on an aspect of her life begun many years before: the informal mentoring of those friends and family younger than she. Always accessible and approachable, her advice and guidance was available to any who asked; many did so, always to their benefit. She particularly enjoyed interactions with her youngest nieces and nephews, their children and even their children’s’ children. Her intimate dinners (though she claimed not to cook) and her tea parties for children (complete with appropriate hats from her large and stylish collection), were famous throughout the family. She connected effortlessly with those a generation or even two younger than she, and was a skilled and discerning listener, especially so when a problem seemed unsolvable. Outside her family, Sylvia found joy and purpose in volunteer work, again choosing to focus on working with children in Broadview and Darien as a classroom aide.

Sylvia’s touchstone was self-improvement. Although her formal education ended with high school graduation, her interests were unrestricted in scope. She studied French and Japanese, the arts of fencing and Tai-chi, French Impressionism and Egyptology, the lives of Churchill and Lincoln, medieval art and the Language of Flowers. There was almost nothing in which she was uninterested and she loved sharing what she’d learned.

As Sylvia’s count of years passed 80 and then 90, her seemingly endless energy began to diminish, but new generations of family and the children of old friends learned to cherish her and her status as a fixture in their lives. The love she dispensed never ebbed, even in her last days. In typical fashion, she continually urged her visitors not to fret over her and to take good care of themselves. Sylvia’s passing leaves a unfillable void in the lives of the many who loved her, and it’s with love that she’ll be remembered.

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