Helen D. Edelnant

Helen Dorothy Beckstrand Edelnant, 98, passed away at North Shore Place in Northbrook, Ill., on June 13, 2020, after a long and amazing life. She was born to the late Carl Gustaf Beckstrand and Selma Helena Karlson Beckstrand on January 15, 1922 in Paxton, Illinois. She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Alex Edelnant, brother Wallace Beckstrand and sisters Evelyn Beckstrand and Mary Ann McBride.

After graduating from Paxton High School with straight A's in 1940, she left home at 18 to attend the Swedish Covenant Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago at the beginning of World War II. Nurses were in great demand because of the war, and Helen loved her career helping others. She continued practicing nursing for 50 years and often said how proud she was to wear her nurse's cap.

While in Chicago, she met the love of her life, Alex Edelnant. Together Helen and Al built a marriage of nearly 40 years, enjoying a rich and fulfilling life with many shared interests. Al was a pharmacist, while Helen was an RNC. They lived in Chicago, Skokie, and Lincolnwood. Their love of travel took them all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica, especially enjoying their African safari, Israel, and Russia. Helen loved to share these broadening experiences with family. They spent winters in Naples where Helen enjoyed playing tennis with her many friends there. She was an avid reader and loved history. Their love of family kept her connected with her many nieces and nephews after Al's death in 2003. During these last years, she showed an interest in knowing about each of them and delighted in their visits to her. She became the connection for them to the past generation, that "Greatest Generation". She was admired for her graciousness in how to live a long life and for her immense generosity. Her spirit lives on in the lives of her12 nieces and nephews who survive her: Judy, Janet, Jeanne, Mark, Susan, Elyse, Eliot, Ronald, Jerrold, Jay, Jeffrey, and Michael.

She will be buried alongside her husband, Alex, in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.