Lillian Asan

 

ASAN

Lillian Asan (Vuscko), age 95, passed away on Wednesday, August 17, 2022 after a two-year long struggle with breast cancer.  Beloved wife of John Asan (deceased); loving mother of Maureen (John) Nipaver, John (Mary Ann) Asan and Jeffrey Asan; proud grandmother of Brian Asan, Elizabeth (Spencer) Whitney, Lindsey(Josh) Thompson and Christie (Stephen) Brantley; great grandmother of Nellie, Charlotte, Jacob, Brooks and Asa. Lillian was born on November 22, 1926 in Chicago to Ignatius and Antoinett Vuscko. 

After losing her mom to tuberculosis, and two brothers as infants, Lillian was raised by her dad as a single parent.  This experience created a strong, hardworking, independent and creative woman who cherished her family dearly. She and our dad were devoted to one another and spent many years together with their friends as founding members of the Chi Orioles and as volunteers at the PAV YMCA in Berwyn.  Mom was beautiful inside and out and lived her life with humor, kindness and beauty.

A Memorial Service is scheduled for Saturday, September 24th 2022 Visitation: 8:30am until 10:15am chapel prayers at Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home 516 South Washington Street Naperville, IL. 60540 ph#630-355-0264. Inurnment to follow at: Resurrection Cemetery 7201 Archer Rd. Justice, Il.60458

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Lillian’s name may be made to Living Well Cancer Resource Center Geneva 442 Williamsburg Avenue, Geneva, Il. 60134

Arrangements for the Asan family are entrusted to Debbie Zefran Jerry, Funeral Director ph-630-230-8399; cell:708-212-0413.  www.newtraditionfunerals.com

 

MEMORIES SHARED BY MAUREEN WITH LOVE AT MOM’S SERVICE

 

Thank you all for coming to celebrate our incredible mom, Lillian Asan. We’ve

shared some great stories about my mom and my mom and dad and we are so

grateful that she had a such long life and that we were able to spend the amount

of time we had with her. The last month in particular before she died, I was able

to spend a great deal of time with her and even being terribly sick, she continued

to embody all of the qualities that I so admired her for. Of course, she would

lament that she had no one to talk to because she had outlived all of her friends

and family and I can only imagine how hard that must have been for her. She

missed her best friend Kayo…… Bucky, JR and Vodge, Eddie and Rosie, Sinks and

Wilma and Ron and Fran Zefran to name a few……… her cousins Tillie, Steffie and

Marie. But through it all, she was so strong, always upbeat and kept her great

sense of humor. She never complained, never wanted us to go out of our way.

Her daily routine would start like this: she would get up around 6:00, turn the

coffee pot on, grab her golf putter, go to the front door where the newspaper

would be waiting and snag the Sun Times in with the putter. She would then

pour her cup of coffee, milk no sugar, retire to the den, catch up on the headlines

on the Today Show and then turn off the TV (she didn’t want it to breakdown

from overuse). She would grab her clipboard, attach the daily Sun Times

crossword puzzle and work on it for an hour or so before she started her chores

for the day.

Mom was always there for us. If we had a project at school that required any

artwork, she would come through and make our poster boards look wonderful.

She could be stubborn. She never wanted to learn how to drive and we could

never convince her to even try. Even if my dad wasn’t around to take her, she

would walk to 35 th street in the middle of a snowstorm to the Jewel if she needed

groceries. Any further distances, my dad was more than willing to drive her and

wait while she shopped. We even caught him talking to the store mannequins on

one trip, patiently waiting for her. He was crazy about her.

Next to her family and friends, Mom loved her house and loved to decorate She

would be bursting with pride when someone visited for the first time and they

mentioned how clean and bright and spacious her house was. She could make a

silk purse from a sow's ear as the saying goes. She made a valance for her

bedroom once out of cardboard and cloth and a Styrofoam wall hanger for her

small plants in her “spa” bathroom. She was jack of all trades and could do just

about anything around the house including tuckpoint. She would change one

accessory and it would make her day. My dad tried for years to get her to move

but nope, she wasn’t going anywhere. More than anything her wish was to spend

 

her final years in her home and we were able to do that because of MaryAnn and

John.

I don’t know what Mom and I would have done without them. Over the years

they were there for mom to take her to doctor’s appointments, to the Jewel once

a week for groceries where they would let her take off, my brother John‘s

watchful eye not far behind as she used to tell me, or to spend time with her out

for a nice lunch. Maryann would bring a couple portions of a meal she had

cooked for my mom to try and John was there to make any needed repairs on the

house and help her with her finances. When mom was sick, Maryann

volunteered some of her clothing, knowing they would be more comfortable for

her. She went above and beyond, changing Mom’s bandages, assisting her with

personal care and brightening her home with beautiful artwork.

They are truly the best…………..

But if you talked to my Mom…………. she managed the household. She kept it spic

and span and would take pride in the fact that she could call Pat, the Cicero

Alderman any time to get things repaired. She also had total control over her

checkbook. Up to the very last week of her life, she took great pride in writing

those checks out and balancing the checkbook, just as my dad had taught her.

Mom was always fun to be around and you never really felt like you were talking

to an older person, she was young at heart. She had a great sense of humor and

sometimes it would irritate my dad when he would do something we thought was

funny, we would get into laughing so hard we’d have to leave the room. He’d say

“you two are crazy”. She would take great pride in getting good deals on

expensive clothing and always looked classy. I remember being so surprised when

I found out that she used henna on her hair to get the auburn color, I thought for

years that it was natural! Only in the last year did she let her hair turn gray and

she reminded me that she did not like it!

My dad was the extrovert he used to say and my mom was the introvert. It was

true, she was always friendly and kind to people, she just didn’t need to have

people around all of the time which probably served her well after my dad passed

away. She always had an upbeat attitude and rarely complained. She never

wanted to put anyone out or have them go out of their way so I guess you’d say

she always thought of others first before herself. She loved her crossword

puzzles, Grey's Anatomy, People Magazine, pork schnitzel from Aldi’s, poticia,

dark chocolate turtle candy, dancing with or without my dad as we found out,

Marshalls, Spencer calling her on the way home from work and my brother Jeff’s

 

weekly phone calls. Even as she turned 90, she wanted to go check out the latest

styles and so we’d get her a cart and let her go. She didn’t want you to have to

worry about watching over her.

Mom was never a talker on the phone and would always crack us up in her later

years, saying, well not much going on …..gotta go! In the last month we talked

about how she wanted to be remembered and she said as a great Mom and I told

her she was, 10 times over, the best mom that anyone could hope for. I

reminded her that her mother, who she hardly knew and who did not live past

her mid-20’s would have been so proud of all that her daughter accomplished as a

wife, mother and friend and that she lived to be the grand age of 95.

I only aspire to be exactly like her, 95 years young. Her strength and

independence throughout her life and her recent illness is to be admired. She did

it all with humor, kindness and of course, beauty

The last year she would say……… why am I not sitting on a cloud by now and I’d

say, Mom, Dad is just not ready for you yet, he wants to make sure everything is

perfect. Well, your time has come Mom, you are looking down on us now

surrounded by all of your friends and family…………… rest in peace………. and we’d

never say good bye, it was always, love you and until next time…………

 

 

 

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