Annette Frances Szafran

Annette grew up in Chicago, on Pulaski near Chicago Avenue with her parents, Joseph "Joe" Danesi and Catherine "Kate" (Barone) Danesi. Whose children are Dolores "Dee" (Danesi) Orlik, Susan "Sue" (Danesi) Cadero, and Annette the middle sister.

Annette was a survivor of the 1958 Our Lady of The Angels School fire. She was spared that day from classroom 209, with the help of Father Joseph Ognibene. Years later Father Joe and Annette met again around 1978, when Father Joe was assigned to St. Colette Church where Annette was an active member.

Annette married her true love Dennis John Szafran "Denny" on May 22, 1965. They met at a party hosted by her sister Dolores, at their parents' house. Paulette (Ponzniak) Karp, was a good friend of Dolores', and Dennis was Paulette's cousin. He was enlisted in the Navy and home on leave, so the girls invited him to the party. Soon after that Dennis and Annette started dating. When his tour of duty was over, they were married at Our Lady of The Angels Church. Their first child Joseph "Joe" (son) was a honeymoon baby, was born sooner than planned in February.

Annette and Dennis lived above Dennis' parents but needed larger living quarters. In 1969 they moved from their small apartment in Chicago, to their first home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. This brought Annette to St Colette Church. Shortly after they settled in their new home. Jodette (daughter) came along to join the family in August.

Annette was always very active when she moved out to the suburbs. Annette had jobs she could do at home, before "online" was a thing. Annette worked for an area law office stuffing envelopes which allowed her to stay at home with the kids. When the children were older, Annette gained new skills by taking shorthand classes. We were surprised to learn Annette had a strong interest in automotives and worked part time at Lattof Chevrolet filing and filling out bills of sale.

Enjoying her secretarial skills, she moved to full time work at Kelly Oldsmobile and Murphy Buick. Continuing to grow she would get better job's. Transcriber for the City of Rolling Meadows, for their meetings, and minute keeper for Rolling Green Country Club. All good jobs, but Annette always liked new challenges. Annette worked in the Schaumburg offices for Experian Credit Bureau, then purchasing for Northwest Community Hospital, legal secretary at Pepper Construction.

And now with all that training one of the jobs she really enjoyed, was the administrative secretary for the police chief for the Village of Addison. It wasn't about the title; it was about the job and the people. Even with that job, Annette was still working part time. She liked to meet new people. I think because Dennis enjoyed Christmas so much, she sold for a company selling Christmas items, Christmas Around The World, doing home shows. Us kids didn't know how she kept our father from being her best customer. After that company, she was involved with Undercover Wear Lingerie home parties along with Lady Remington Jewelry.

Whether it was for work or fun, Annette volunteered with so many groups and committees; L.E.A.P. (Law Enforcement Administrative Professionals), Bloomingdale events along with Dennis. As a family, she was involved with the City of Rolling Meadows Community Events Committee. She always made friends.

Annette also enjoyed traveling with or without Dennis on all her adventures. Whether flying off to another country, cruising on the sea, she always came back with fabulous pictures, great stories and more friends. It was amazing how many places she would go to and run into someone she knew on vacation, and sometimes even family that she has not seen in years. Next came the bus trips all across the U.S. It could be a day trip, or a week long party, she saw a lot. But the difference on those trips was that these friends were neighbors. That meant getting together for barbeques, holidays, shows, dinners, and yes even just to drop in and talk.

Even though Annette and Dennis' family was small, there are so many cousins, nieces, nephews, very close family and friends, even though no personal names are mentioned, if you are reading this, you are also included. Annette would never forget your special days. Either she would make sure that she sent you a card, a gift, or gave you a call. Your special day was special to her too.

For those of you that do not know, she was scheduled to go in for a follow up endoscopy because she was still having swallowing issues after her stomach removal surgery the previous year by Dr. Bilimoria. He was still concerned that maybe there was scarring that was causing her not to be able to get food down correctly. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of her battle. After the first endoscopy she was told the horrible words, "The cancer came back". The first thought was how could the cancer come back? And it was angry, since she no longer had a stomach to attack, It is now feeding on her intestines breeding in her peritoneal lining and fluid. So back on chemo that was even stronger to try to beat it.

After a year of chemo treatments and still having swallowing issues, she was scheduled for the follow up endoscopy on Veteran's Day November 11, 2025. This was the start of the end. Around 2:30 that morning Annette felt good, even after doing the preparation for the endoscopy. She got up to go to the bathroom and fell getting back into bed. This woke the house up. After getting her patched up and back into bed, she was going to try to get some sleep before her morning endoscopy. But she knew her knee did not feel right, but as tough as she is, she was going to get that endoscopy in the morning!

Being the scheduler, she was, her thought was since she will be at the hospital, she would call her primary doctor to ask if he could put in an order for an x-ray of her knee, because she knew something was wrong. Unfortunately, they saw how much pain she was in, so off to the Emergency Room she went. She was right, she fractured her kneecap and needed surgery. That is when her stay started on November 18, 2025, at Lutheran Home My Rehab.

While she was in rehab trying to heal her knee, the cancer was getting worse. Annette still did her chemo appointments along with her physical therapy for her knee. Still having swallowing issues, it was getting harder and harder to keep food down. This was causing her to get weaker and weaker, but she was still planning on getting better and going home. She was there for Thanksgiving, where we were talking about maybe she will be home for her Birthday December 5th, and when that day came we all tried to smile and wish her a Happy 80th birthday.

Next was Christmas, usually the happiest time at our house. Dennis would have had the house decorated all year long if she would have allowed it. With the New Year coming, the hope was to be home for 2026. This meant getting the house ready for Mom. We threw out her old bed, thinking it was going to be replaced by a medical bed, as we knew she wanted to spend her last days at home. We followed her wishes, even though we knew the best place for her was where she was. It wasn't long after New Years, one of her doctors said "You really should think about putting your mom in hospice". We had the conversation with her because she still had the wind in her sail.

We knew she was not ready to give up. She was tough and made it to her son's 60th birthday on February 5th and was still fighting. Here it was the end of February and still no hospice, even though we could see her getting weaker, we said "see mom, you made it another month".

But the battle had finally gotten to be too much for Annette; Jodette was there for every step of the way. Tuesday night, March 3rd was the start of any pain medicine stronger than Tylenol, just because she was very uncomfortable with some of the sores from lying in bed. Turning and propping was no longer keeping her comfortable. We could see the wind was no longer filling her sail. We knew that tomorrow is not guaranteed, and we said "I love you Mom, I will be back tomorrow" every night with the wish that it was true.

Unfortunately, time has stopped for Annette; she was able to finally join the other Angels in her life. Jodette was at her side but never heard her final breath. Annette passed very peacefully and just slipped away in the early hours. Annette finally lost her battle with cancer at 4:25 a.m. on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at Lutheran Home My Rehab in Arlington Heights.

For those of you that wish to attend Annette's final party, it was decided that for these reasons it is to be a happy time, and "Oh what a party". We have scheduled Annette's service on a Friday afternoon, early enough so you don't have to drive in the dark or take any time off work. Saturday will be the funeral mass, with a luncheon to follow.

Glueckert Funeral Home will be hosting the service on Friday, March 27, 2026, from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00pm. On Saturday at 9:30 a.m. March 28, 2026, we will be gathering at Glueckert Funeral Home, where we will have a final visitation. Then at 10:30 a.m. a procession will leave Glueckert Funeral Home for St. Colette Church for mass. The mass will begin at 11:00 a.m. at St, Colette Church, followed by a luncheon in the basement after the mass.

The inurnment will be on their anniversary. Annette and the family would also like to invite anyone that would like to attend her inurnment ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, where she will be joining Dennis. The date is May 22nd 2026 at 11:00 a.m.

Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery located at 20953 West Hoff Road (State Route 53) Elwood, Illinois 60421. (815) 423-9958

In lieu of flowers, we are asking for those who would like to donate in Annette's honor to her earthly angels.

Dr. Bilimoria was her miracle worker, he was truly guided to her along with his team, at the start of the stomach cancer. The comfort that was shown throughout Annette's care went above and beyond making it possible to embark on this journey without fear. After speaking with Dr. Bilimoria, he feels the best organization for gastric pancreatic cancer research is Solidarity Bridge.

Then there is Dr. Shade and his team who she has been with since her first diagnosis in 2011 of breast cancer. Everyone there looked after Annette as if she was family, and answered any call at any hour. Dr. Shade was there until the very end. We also feel that his direction for oncology hematology cancer research could use support.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to one of the charities below.