Corazon J. Balbarin

Corazon Juinio Balbarin, M.D. passed away peacefully on Monday, June 16, 2025, at her residence in Lisle, surrounded by her family. She was 87 years old and was looking ahead to her milestone birthday on July 19, when she would have celebrated the auspicious age of 88. The family is deeply saddened but are comforted knowing that her strong faith in God and His love have called her to her eternal home.

Corazon was preceded in death by her husband of 51 years, Eduardo Balbarin (2019). She is survived and missed by her loving children, Vincent (Mary), Carolyn (Eric), and Eunice (Ron) and forever cherished and remembered by her five grandchildren, Owen (25), Sean (22), Mateo (21), Quinn Charles “Chip” (20), and Octavio (18). Her memory lives on with her sister, Amelia Juinio Tan, her brothers- and sisters- in law, nieces and nephews in the United States and in the Philippines.

Corazon was born in Manila, Philippines in 1937, as one of 9 children to Moises Juinio and Aurea Juinio (nee Andres) and grew up in a humble home devoted to faith in God, service to community and education as the means to uplift oneself, family and others. As a young woman, she dreamed of being a zoologist but was strongly encouraged by her parents to follow a more practical career in medicine. She completed her Doctorate in Medicine from the prestigious University of Santo Tomas in 1961.

Recognizing the big world in front of her, she secretly applied and was accepted to join Operation Brotherhood, a U.S. and Philippines humanitarian medical and relief partnership to staff a hospital and field clinics in Vientiane, Laos, where she treated refugees and Laotians. Among the many calamities of military conflict, the poor health and living conditions of local citizens, she treated her patients with dignity and care.

Her adventurous spirit went beyond her professional career, as she met and married her husband, Eduardo, a mechanical engineer who was also working in Laos for Air America operations, after only a short courtship. They eventually flew to the United States in the fall 1967, making their home in Chicago where a few family members had already settled.

Corazon and Eduardo started a family quickly and while their children were very young, she worked as a physician in Chicago in the infamous Cabrini Green neighborhood, where she found a different joy and purpose to working outside the home and learning aspects of the American culture. In 1976, she and Eduardo risked the familiarity of their life and relationships in Chicago to move their young family 60 miles away to Joliet, where she opened a private practice as a solo female practitioner at 74 North Chicago Street in Joliet and joined the medical staff at Silver Cross Hospital. She remained in the same office location as a solo practitioner until 1995, after which she sold her successful practice to the Will County Community Health Department. She became a staff physician, serving her previous patients, while reaching many more patients in Will County until 2006. Although she moved on from the organization and the Joliet area, she spoke often of the lifelong, irreplaceable friendships formed over the years. She and Eduardo relocated to Lisle to be in closer proximity to their daughters.

However, Corazon could not set aside practicing medicine. She worked part time at Aunt Martha’s Health Centers in Aurora and volunteered at the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic in 2006, and in 2011, joined KidCare and Legacy Health Care Centers in the Northwest Suburbs. She remarked that her final role at KidCare and Legacy Health allowed her to focus on patient care in different communities, on working with multiple teams, and on never having to worry about commuting. She reveled in the perks of having a car service and administrative support provided to her by the practice!

She lost Eduardo in 2019 but continued to dedicate her time to practicing medicine and helping others. At the pinnacle of her work as a physician, she served her patients during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, it was during this time that she contracted COVID-19, leaving her lungs permanently compromised. She retired from medical practice in 2020, but maintained her license in hope that someday she would be able to return to practicing medicine in a limited capacity.

In retirement, however, she had few hobbies that she approached with the same enthusiasm as her career. She loved reading and going to the library, cooking and coaching her daughters in the kitchen, playing online Mah-Jong, listening to classical music, watching her many law and law enforcement drama series, and staying current with news, pop culture, and technology. For those who knew her well, yes, she continued to add onto an already extensive wardrobe of clothes and accessories and took great pride in dressing well for Church and for her many appointments and outings. She took special joy in watching her grandsons reach their milestone moments of school graduations, first jobs, international travel, and extraordinary and everyday achievements. In her quiet time, she read devotionals and prayed the rosary daily.

Corazon, meaning “heart” in Spanish, was truly the heart of the family. She instilled in her children and her grandchildren God’s presence and the importance of keeping family bonds, traditions, and making time for one another. Her legacy will live on in them as a family and in each of them, as they discover and embrace their own moments of adventure.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to St. Margaret Mary Parish, where she was a parishioner. https://www.wesharegiving.org/app/giving/WeShare-20000074?tab=home

Visitation will be on Thursday, June 26, 2025, from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Lisle. Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, June 27, 2025, at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Naperville at 11:00 a.m.