Good-bye, Grandpa Havlik

We just got word that one of our favorite (former) neighbors passed away recently. Frank Havlik, Grandpa Havlik to some of our children, was 98 years old when he died November 20th. I'll bet his wonderful wife Lil was happy to see him! Here is a link to the obituary: http://www.legacy.com/dailyherald/Obituaries.asp?Page=SEARCHRESULTS.

He was born in Czechoslovakia and worked his way up to factory foreman at Illinois Toolworks in Elgin and retired more than 30 years ago! We used to love hearing his great storytelling about things that happened in his life. After Lil passed away, he hung in there and did volunteer work at the ECC Bookstore and never missed the fish fry at the American Legion Hall.

When he was in his early 90s the doctor suggested he work on muscle toning. So he joined a local fitness center and loved being the center of attention as the oldest one there. They even asked him to be the social chairman there to welcome people so they would want to come back. We were happy when a newspaper article was published heralding his efforts.

Rachel and Clarissa used to make it a point to stop by the Havlik house on the way home hoping for a little candy and to my knowledge were never disappointed. Frank was sad when Clarissa grew up and didn't have occasion to walk past his house any more. We still enjoyed caroling there at Christmastime and dropping off jars of homemade soup and other food whenever we could and brought him over for meals once in a while.

A couple of years ago, he moved to Arizona to be closer to his daughter, so we've been missing him for a while. But he was a fine man and we are grateful to have known him.
SH