Anna Wielander

Anna (Bobner) Wielander was born on May 9, 1939 in Slovenia, Yugoslavia. Her family left the German-speaking enclave during the war, and with her mother Maria and two sisters, Marie and Freida, settled into a refugee camp in Southern Austria. Anna and her mother moved to the United States in 1951 with the aid of the Tolstoy Foundation, and settled in Freewood Acres (Howell), New Jersey (the other sisters would join them 4-5 years later). After graduating from Freehold High School in 1964, Anna remained in the area, taking up a secretarial role at a law office in Freehold. She met her future husband, Franz, on a hiking trip in New Jersey in 1966, and they wed the following year, on July 15th, in Austria following a civil marriage in the States. The newly-married couple relocated to Astoria, Queens, New York, where she worked in banking, and within a few years was raising the couple’s two children. In 1974, the family moved to Bayside, Queens, where Anna spent her time as a homemaker and handling the accounting for the family business. Later when the kids were grown, Anna spent twenty years as the secretary for the town’s Presbyterian Church. In her spare time, Anna would either be needlepointing a picture or pillow for a friend or family member’s new baby, or could be found tending to her backyard garden in Bayside, where she called home for forty-four years. Anna passed away at home on July 5th (2020) after a battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband, her sister, Marie, her daughter, Monica Dagmar, her son, Eric, and two grandchildren. The family expresses its gratitude to the staff of North Shore University Hospital, the Northwell Health Stern Family Center for Rehabilitation, and to Aryuni Jaglalli, Anna Gonzalez, and Sandra Morgan for caring for their mother.