On the day before his death–his birthday–Ivan “John” Cikvari rested peacefully, surrounded by loved ones at the nursing home where he had lived since suffering a stroke in June.
Family members recalled how the 91-year-old Croatian immigrant opened his eyes to find his room filled with more than a dozen members of the nursing home’s staff, all there to celebrate the life of a man they had come to know and care for during the last several weeks.
“There were balloons and cake and so many people–the doctors and nurses, even some of the housekeeping staff,” said his daughter, Terry Grumeretz. “When they finished singing `Happy Birthday,’ my father scanned each one of their faces and then gave them a big smile. By the time it was over, almost everyone was in tears.”
Mr. Cikvari, of Elburn, formerly of Chicago, a retired butcher and carpenter, died Tuesday, Aug. 31, in Rosewood Care Center in St. Charles.
Born and raised in the small Croatian village of Majar, Mr. Cikvari could speak four languages as a child: Croatian, Hungarian, German and English. When he was 13, he studied to be a tailor before changing vocations two years later and becoming a butcher. In the 1930s, after the death of his first wife, Anna, Mr. Cikvari was forced to leave his young son with his mother and find work. Eventually he found a job in Slovakia, as a butcher in a shop owned by his late wife, Terezija Miklos, whom he married in 1944. For the next several years, Mr. Cikvari and his wife raised a family and ran their shop before fleeing Slovakia in the mid-1950s, to make a new home in Yugoslavia.
In 1960, he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in Chicago’s North Side.
Soon after, Mr. Cikvari began working for Geo. Ash Packing Co. until the union he belonged to found him a job as a butcher at E.W. Kneip in Chicago. He worked there for 14 years before retiring in 1975.
In his retirement, family members said, Mr. Cikvari concentrated on remodeling his home in Chicago and tending his garden.
In 1987, he and his wife left the city to live with their daughter, Terry, and her family in Elburn.
Two years later, his wife died, and Mr. Cikvari continued to live with his daughter’s family.
“Having him live with us was a beautiful blessing for my children, his grandchildren,” his daughter said.
Other survivors include a son, Josep; a stepson, Yanni Hamersky; six grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and four stepgreat-grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday in St. Gall Catholic Church, Illinois Highway 47 and Shannon Street, Elburn. Mass will follow at 11 a.m. in the church.
