Julie A. Hermanson, 63, of Arlington Heights (formerly of Chicago), passed away on June 24, 2019. Julie was the beloved daughter of Clifford and the late Marcella (née Smith) Hermanson; loving sister of Robert (Ellen Duff), Thomas (Mary Ellen Keenan), Michael (Benna), Mary (Jason) Cline, and the late Catherine “Kate” Liberio; fond sister-in-law of Vince (Karen) Liberio; cherished aunt of Paul (partner Allison Fontaine-Capel) and Mark Hermanson , Meggie (Andrew) Jensen, Michael (fiancée Kelly Metcalf), Ellie, Emma, Anne, and Severin Hermanson, Natalie and Alex Cline, Vince, Matthew, and Claire Liberio, and Emily and Allison Barron; and joyful great-aunt of Thomas Jensen. Memorial visitation will be Tuesday, July 2, 2019, from 3-9 PM at Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home, 2000 E. Northwest Highway, Arlington Heights, and Wednesday, July 3, at St. Raymond de Penafort Church, Elmhurst Road (Rt. 83) and Lincoln Street, Mt. Prospect, from 9:00 AM until the time of the Memorial Mass at 10:00 AM. Interment will be private.
Julie was born at Evanston Hospital on May 18, 1956, and spent her childhood in Mt. Prospect, attending Our Lady of the Wayside School in Arlington Heights and Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Rolling Meadows. She graduated from Illinois State University, after working part-time in local taverns and earning extra spending money and free vacations by organizing spring break trips to Florida. After graduation, she lived in Daytona Beach for several years, working as an office manager for a small chemical company. She returned to Chicago in 1987, living in the then-sketchy Ukrainian Village area and working for a small physician staffing firm in Lincoln Park. In 2000 she bought a condo in Edgewater, and after the Lincoln Park firm closed, worked for several accounting firms, most recently Weiss & Company LLP in Glenview.
She made – and kept – friends at every one of these steps. She was someone you could talk to, who shared her experiences and who kept your confidences, who helped in any way she could, who called over the years to keep up with how you were doing. She made her friends feel special, and her friends adored her back.
Julie reveled in her nieces and nephews – eventually 15, including a couple of bonus nieces by marriage – and created a special bond with them by gladly babysitting when they were young and, later, by fashioning various excursions just for fun. She was always there for all of them (and was Godmother to four). The kids loved her back. Oh, boy, did they love her back! (Pssst … so did their parents!)
When in early adulthood Julie was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease, she did what came naturally: she volunteered with the PKD Foundation and helped organize and run events to raise funds for PKD research. (Funding which, just recently, has begun to bear fruit in the form of novel and potentially effective therapies for this as yet incurable disease.) In 2012, her sister Mary donated a kidney to Julie for a successful transplant operation. Because of this, Julie always viewed these past seven years as a bonus, each day a gift to be lived and enjoyed.
Julie was warm and friendly and approachable and kind and generous, and people reciprocated. Her year-long bout with cancer may have destroyed her body, but Julie’s spirit will remain part of the fabric of memory for all those people she knew and loved – from childhood to the present – and who loved her back.
The Hermansons wish to thank Dr. John W. Eklund of Illinois Cancer Specialists and his gentle and kind staff for their professional and respectful care of Julie during her struggle.
And the Hermanson family expresses its particular thanks and appreciation to the folks at Weiss & Company LLP, Julie’s employers, who gallantly supported Julie in every possible way during her illness. Weiss & Company treated Julie as family, and the Hermansons will be forever grateful.
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