Stella Julia Gill was a prize-winning homemaker.
Folks would come for miles for her homemade apple slices.
In 1979, she and her sisters were featured in the Chicago Tribune celebrating their traditional Polish cooking -- fresh sausages and bread, pierogi and kruszcyzki, those melt-in-your-mouth crullers that her mother made every Christmas and Easter.
She won ribbons for her hand-painted ceramics and photography.
Neighbors often stopped to admire her carefully curated flower beds that encircled the white, corner house built by her late husband in East Hazel Crest where she raised her three children.
When anyone stopped for a visit, Stella fed them -- even if they weren't hungry.
Caring for people was the best of her.
Stella Gill died from COVID-19 complications on March 11 at Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana.
She was 93.
Stella was the 14th child of Polish immigrants, homemaker and caterer Eva Urbanek Nawracaj and Stanley Nawracaj, who worked in a steel foundry.
She was born in Harvey on the day her father died, Sept. 5, 1927.
Stella grew up in the one-story house her father built at 230 W. 147th St. on a big lot with a garden wrapped in grapevines. There was a well-water pump on the porch and an outhouse in the backyard. Every Sunday, they had company over for fresh bread and roasted veal.
"Things were very hard for my parents," Stella wrote in her journal entry.
She shared an attic bedroom with two of her sisters, Kay Wszolek and the late Virginia Czajkowski. They slept three in a bed. At night, her mother sang them funny Polish lullabies.
Stella graduated 8th grade, skipped high school and went to work. Her first job was taking care of a 6 month-old baby girl for a young working couple. Later, she got a job pressing and folding shirts and pants at Hoekstra's Uniform Laundry in South Holland.
And during World War II, she ran printing presses at Perfection Gear Company in Harvey. That's where she rekindled a romance with Joseph Gill, a handsome sailor. They first met at a birthday party.
"Our eyes met, and we knew we were meant for each other. He touched my hand and I got goosebumps. Sam Martin wanted to cut in, and Joe told him I was his -- to go and find his own girl," Stella wrote in her journal. They dated for a while and broke up.
When they reunited at Perfection Gear Company, Joe Gill took her bowling. They went steady and finally got married on Nov. 8, 1947 at St. Anne's Catholic Church. She wore a white satin gown with a long train. They had a modest "honeymoon" -- picking corn in the field across the street from the church.
"Oh what joy. O what love!" Stella wrote in a journal.
They lived in an apartment in her in-laws house on a stretch of Fisk Avenue in East Hazel Crest solely populated by the Gill family. They called it "Gill-ville."
Joe Gill built a house on a corner lot, a wedding present from his parents. They moved in when just one bedroom and the kitchen were finished. They raised three children there: Joanne "Bunny" Konkol, James Joseph Gill and Kathleen Rapsky.
Joe and Stella loved to go dancing, watch football games and play cards with friends. They took road trips to visit friends in Wisconsin and family in Pennsylvania. They vacationed in Las Vegas and California. After the kids were born, they spent summer weekends swimming, fishing and boating at Wilmington Recreation Club.
Stella sang in the choir at St. Anne and St. John Catholic churches. She belonged to the Polish Legion of American Veterans, served as president of the East Hazel Crest Homemakers Extension Association, and was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary for more than 30 years.
Joe Gill died of cancer on June 9, 1975. He was 52.
"I thank God for choosing Joe for my husband. Our marriage was made in heaven," Stella wrote. "After Joe died... I thought my world would end. I missed him so very much." She prayed that God would send her someone who "needed me as much as I needed him."
On June 26, 1976, Stella met Leonard Bylina at a street dance celebrating America's bicentennial. Bylina, an Army veteran who survived the invasion of Normandy worked for Jewel Foods for 50 years, was tall with broad shoulders and slicked-back hair.
On Oct. 1, 1977, they got married at St. Anne's Catholic Church.
"Len is kind and very generous. He is not perfect but neither am I. He does a lot for me. More than I do for him. I love him and I know he loves me. He shows me in many ways. He is good to me. He never says no to me. Sometimes I wish he would. He lets me do whatever I want," she wrote in a journal. "I thank God for sending me a man who respected me and loves me."
When Stella wanted to open a ceramics studio in the basement, Bylina bought her two kilns, lined the walls with shelves to store pottery and paints, and set up long tables where Stella painted statues and taught family, friends and neighbors to do the same.
One of Stella most treasured accomplishments was restoring statutes of icons that had started to deteriorate at St. John's Catholic Church in Harvey.
Stella Gill loved to travel. She visited 48 states including Hawaii, which she visited with Joe Gill to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. With her second husband, Leonard Bylina, Stella went on a Caribbean cruise.
After Bylina retired, they crisscrossed America in station wagons and conversion vans, sometimes with her grandchildren, Mark Konkol and Michelle Liguras, in tow. Many times, Stella's sister Kay and her late husband Joe Wszloek, and their sons Eddie and Jeff traveled with them, too.
In 2000, Stella and Leonard embarked on an epic road trip through Texas and California to Oregon, where they visited her sister and her husband, Helen and Ed Neimiec. On the drive home, Bylina fell ill. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and died on Oct. 11, 2000.
"God gave me two wonderful men to love, and they loved me. He gave me Joe for 27 years and Leonard 23 years," Stella wrote in a journal. "I gave both of them back to the Lord. ...I thank God for blessing me twice."
Stella married a third time in 2005. It wasn't a blessing. She got divorced and changed her last name back to Gill.
Stella lived in the house Joe Gill built until 2018.
She moved to a small apartment in Lansing across the hall from her daughter, Kathy Rapsky.
The move helped Stella avoid the "old-folks home" and maintain her independence. She even negotiated a $50 reduction in her rent. When age slowed Stella, Kathy cooked and cared for her.
Stella Gill is survived by two sisters, Kay and Helen, her children, Joanne (Michael) Konkol, James (Carol) Gill and Kathleen (Mike) Rapsky, grandchildren Mark Konkol, Michelle (Nick) Liguras and Susan Rapsky, Lauren (Scott) Hutchinson, Jamie (Tom) Ard, Carly (Joe) Goerdt, Joe (Christina) Gill and 14 great-grandchildren.