Lillian “Lil” Ann Blaho (nee Soroka) passed away peacefully on January 20, 2025, at the age of 90. Born in Jersey City, NJ, she would move to Chicago, IL, and later to Dyer, IN. Her final two years were spent in Sellersburg, IN.

Cast from a mold of tough love and hard work, Lil was the definition of gumption. Her energy, cleverness, intelligence, wit and grit was impossible to match – a true force. To know her was to love her and she could light up any room. One of her cherished hobbies was watching and feeding the birds outside her window. In many ways, she embodied her favorite creatures.

Like a cardinal, she adored and supported her beloved husband Gene. They married June 4, 1955, in Chicago, celebrating 67 years of marriage at their last anniversary. Perfectly matched, she complemented and challenged him, and together they served as an example of love and partnership to all who knew them.

Like a woodpecker, she was relentless in her pursuits to keep a tidy and well-run home. Raising five children, churning out meals, mending clothes, tending flowers, even mowing her own one-acre yard well into her 80s, Lil was the backbone of her family.

Like a chickadee, she hummed and sang along with the kitchen radio, she recited poems from memory. As a girl she loved school and learning, which would blossom into her love of wordplay. She delighted in solving Wheel of Fortune, Words with Friends and Wordle puzzles until her final days.

And like a hummingbird, she never stopped moving.

She left this world as she lived – tough, tender, and happily at home.

She is survived by her brother Walter Soroka and sister-in-law Elaine Soroka (Myron), children Cheryl Petersen (Brandon), Eugene Blaho (Judy), Laurie Box-Schmitt (Tom), Nancy Funston, Cathy Blaho, grandchildren Lauren, Nick, Alysha (Chris), Ali (Daniel), Josh (Tasheena), Andy, Megan (Brett), Brandon (Stephany), Anna and seven great-grandchildren Raven, Autumn, Lily, Cole, Beckham, Kendrick, Winston, and an eighth on the way. Among her cherished extended family, Steve Blaho held a special role in her life.

She is preceded in death by her love Eugene “Gene” Blaho, parents John and Sophie Soroka, her sister, Mary Kramer (Stanley), sister Olga Gbur (Andrew), brother Myron Soroka, grandson Clayton Petersen, and childhood best friend Esther Bartolotta.

The family will honor her final wishes, foregoing a public memorial service. A private, virtual family memorial will be organized in the coming weeks.

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