Margaret “Marge” Joan Wanda (nee Solarski), 97, of Brookfield, died on Oct. 9, 2026. When her grandmother held her for the first time, she remarked, “What a little ‘lalka’,” and the name stuck. Lalka means doll in Polish, and she was known as “Lal” in the family. Aunt Lal was the last aunt or uncle left on both the Solarski and Wanda sides of the family and was revered as a matriarch.
Born in Chicago, she attended St. Gall and St. Rita Catholic churches. She was a longtime parishioner (60 years) at St. Barbara Catholic Church in Brookfield. A student at Sawyer Elementary School and Gage Park High School, she graduated from Fox Business College, and was employed as a secretary for United Airlines in their executive offices at Midway Airport and in the Loop. In later years she was an executive secretary in the visual merchandising department for Sears in their corporate offices at the Sears Tower. She could type 90 words per minute on a manual typewriter.
In the years between those two jobs, she devoted her time to raising her children, frequently packing up the household for moves from Chicago to Cleveland to Pittsburgh to Carmel, California, and back to Chicago again, due to her husband’s job transfers with the FBI. She always prepared the best home-cooked meals and was an excellent baker. Her family remembers her Sunday dinners and authentic Polish food every Easter.
She loved Carmel, California, and returned there for yearly vacations over many decades of her adult life. She also enjoyed traveling to Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Paris, and London. She loved reading mysteries and spending time with her grandchildren. She was a talented seamstress and taught herself how to cross-stitch, often without using a pattern.
The Wanda household was a feline friendly house, and Lal had many fur babies — Tabby, Spooky, Wolf, Sylvester, and two litters of Tabby’s kittens. But she had a soft spot in her heart for dogs too, having grown up with three dogs as a child, in addition to three grand-dogs as an adult.
Lal was the wife of the late John Wanda Jr.; the mother of Elise A. (the late Deacon Michael) Crowell, Julie H. Wanda, Rev. Michael J. Wanda, and the late Steven G. Wanda; grandmother of Alex Crowell and Emily (Cale) Scott; sister of the late Andrew (the late Marie) Solarski and the late Lawrence (the late Marie) Solarski; aunt of many nieces and nephews and great aunt of many more.
Visitation will be held on Oct. 26 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Hitzeman Funeral Home Ltd. 9445 31st Street, Brookfield. At 11 a.m. on Oct. 27, funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Barbara Church, 4000 Prairie Ave., Brookfield. Interment at Resurrection Cemetery in Justice.
Memorials appreciated to Cat Nap From The Heart, 1101 Beach Ave., La Grange Park, IL 60526 or the Priests’ Health and Retirement/PRMAA, 1400 S. Wolf Road, Bldg. 3, Floor 2, Hillside, 60162.