Annie Wheeler

Annie Wheeler drew her last breath on March 17, 2020 and she lives on in the memories of those who knew her and they will be sad. And they will also smile because that’s what she would have wanted.

Annie was born to parents Dr. Cyril Vojak and Anna Louise Pruett on Oct. 28, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky.

She grew up in Michigan City, Indiana, attended Notre Dame Elementary School and graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in South Bend in 1960.

She attended Northwestern University for a year where she fell in love with the tall skinny guy serving the ice cream in the dining hall.

She married that tall skinny guy from Lincoln Estates, Illinois, Dennis Wheeler, in 1961. They made a home together a couple doors down from where Dennis grew up, and they lived in that house their entire lives.

They were each other’s everything until he passed in 2015 after 53 years of marriage.

She was a mother, a librarian, a print shop assistant and an insurance agent.

Annie was a woman who loved, fought and laughed. Hard.

She was the most gentle and caring listener when you needed it most.

She was fiercely loyal and when she was in your corner you knew it and felt it.

She laughed at pretensions, herself and others and life’s many, many absurdities.

She recognized kindness and extended it to those who had it and needed it.

Most of the time she was the funniest person in the room but she didn’t need anyone to know it.

She saw suffering, sought to better understand it, and wanted justice.

She got mad and she learned to forgive.

She loved her husband more than anyone can love anything.

She missed Dee deeply every day of these past five years.

She was trying every day and it was courageous.

Family, friends, the TTT’s, books and music and time on the back porch fed her soul.

Her sister Stacy and brother Joe, all her Wheeler sibs, daughter Wendy, son in law Ed, and sons Grady and Den, her grand and great grand kids are sad ... yet smiling, because that’s what she would have wanted.

A great party to celebrate her will take place later this summer. If you’d like to learn more, please contact Grady at grady.wheeler@gmail.com.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Joliet Area Community Hospice at www.joliethospice.org.