Lillian M. Polasiak

Lillian M. Polasiak
Resident of Elk Grove Village for 30 years
Lillian M. Polasiak, 84, peacefully passed away November 4, 2025 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
She was born July 11, 1941 in Chicago to the late Michael and Virginia Russo (nee Machalski).
Loving mother of Laura O'Malley (Kevin Kaiser), and the late Jill Pilch.
Beloved grandmother of Sarah O'Malley (Joseph Lambert) and Rachel O'Malley.
Cherished aunt of Tim Russo (Elizabeth) and Mark Russo (Wendy)
Preceded in death by her youngest daughter, Jill Pilch, her brother, Joseph Russo, and her sister-in law, Edith Russo.
Lill truly enjoyed spending time with her family, friends and the dogs she rescued over the years.
Lill will be fondly remembered for doing her best as a single mom of two young daughters back in the 70's. It wasn't easy for women back then. She didn't have much money, but she did her best to make sure her daughters lived in a nice, clean house in a good neighborhood and went to good schools.
Back in the late 1970s, Lill loved to take her daughters, Laura and Jill, to Mystique, a discount women's clothing store. Lill took her girls there so often that the raised numbers on her credit card had flattened out from all the swipes on those old credit card hand swipers. She and her daughters would laugh about this often throughout the years.
Lill loved to try to make special holiday treats with recipes she found in magazines. One year she attempted to copy a cranberry sauce turkey mold she had seen in a magazine. She filled a surgical glove with cranberry sauce and froze it, it was supposed to look like a turkey, but when she put it on the plate and cut the glove off, it ended up looking like a huge blood clot, needless to say, no one ate it! That memory was always good for a laugh.
Every year for Easter Lill would bake a Lamb and a Bunny Cake, (Lill had no artistic talent whatsoever, in fact, her daughter, Laura, used to call her the "Ray Rayner" of craft projects), and her brother, Joe, would tell her the lamb cake looked like a Schnauzer with no neck, because it's head would fall off and Lill would reattach it with a bunch of frosting and toothpicks.
Lill was notorious for hearing a joke at work and then coming home from work to tell it to her daughters. The problem was, after she completed the whole set up of the joke, she would forget the punchline! This made her daughters laugh more than if she had remembered the punchline.
One thing was always true of Lill and her daughters; they loved to laugh at each other and themselves.
Please be kind to each other, and take time to laugh at yourself, it makes this ride called Life so much better.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation made in Lillian's name to St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
For information, please call 847-891-2900 or visit www.michaelsfh.com.