'She Was A Joy': Devoted, Beloved Silver Cross Volunteer Dies At 100

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“Because of her roots, it was always interesting to chat with her,” Valencik said. “She was just a joy to work with.”

By the time Stromberg died Jan. 5 at 100 years old, she had totaled 50 years volunteering at Silver Cross—2,976.5 hours. She had continued giving of her time there well into her mid-80s, family said.

“She was just always here—if she said she was going to be here on her day, she was,” Valencik said. “No surprises with Winnie.”

‘You Get As Much As You Give’

Born in Chicago on Aug. 29, 1923, Stromberg graduated from Joliet Township High School in the Class of 1941. She worked for many years as a bookkeeper at Manner Insurance Agency, retiring in 1992. She was a lifelong resident of Joliet.

In the midst of her career, she also explored a passion for service. Having never married and with no children of her own—”which I always joked might be the reason for her living to 100 years,” her niece said—Stromberg poured herself into volunteerism at the hospital, and roles at her lifelong church, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Joliet. She served on the Boards of Lay Ministry, Mission Committee and Auditing Committee.

She was known for “her delectable fudge and toffee candies, and her talents extended to knitting, sewing and quilting, and baking,” her family wrote in her obituary.

“If you retire when you’re 70 or 72, and you live until you’re 100, that’s a whole other opportunity to serve, and she did,” said Stromberg’s niece, Kari Stromberg-Batka.

“… They say you get as much as you give. … You get from giving.”

Stromberg found joy in spending time with her family and connecting with friends and relatives through the digital realm of Facebook, her family said. She led a simple life, Stromberg-Batka said, and perhaps it was just which had led her to achieve centenarian status.

“Simplicity—less is more,” she said. “Life was enough for her—a simple day, three good meals, going to church—many friends, and family. Those were enough for her. Those values really kept her going.”

‘A Very Special Lady’

The first volunteers—there were 25 of them—at Silver Cross Hospital changed linens and manned reception desks.

Volunteers’ contributions have evolved over time. Stromberg would go on to volunteer in the surgery department, specifically the procedural care unit. She’d greet patients before procedures, and see them off after their recoveries. Patients saw her smiling face as they left the hospital behind them.

“The staff loved her always,” Valencik said. “She was just a wonderful lady to have on our team.”

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Today the program has grown to 400 volunteers, a number that had been decimated during the COVID-19 pandemic but has risen steadily since, Valencik said. The volunteers are essential to the hospital, often serving as a bridge between patients, visitors and staff. Stromberg had seen the start of all that, Valencik said, and cherished the opportunity to see it flourish.

“Winnie was a really special lady,” Valencik said. “Dependable, dedicated, loyal, lively. It was an honor and privilege working with her.”

The inspiration to give back runs deep with the hospital’s volunteers, she said, and that was no clearer than in the example set by Stromberg.

“Our volunteers are such special people,” Valencik said. On a Friday following an overnight snowstorm and with another front expected to move through, she had been touched to see volunteers still trickle into the hospital, ready to help.

“They came out this morning, even,” she said. “… We couldn’t do it without them. They’re really an important part of our team, in serving our guests and the community.”

Stromberg-Batka knows her aunt meant so much to the hospital, but that was mutual. As she and her husband sorted through Stromberg’s belongings, they found a pin commemorating her 3,000 hours of service.

“We learned that her volunteering was extremely important to her,” she said. “She was most proud of the service she gave at Silver Cross.”

Stromberg-Batka thinks her aunt was 85 when she had finally stopped volunteering. In a note sharing her volunteerism story, Stromberg spoke of her pride for contributions.

“The best job I ever had was one I did not receive pay for,” Stromberg wrote. “It was that of being a hospital volunteer.

“I was a Charter member at Silver Cross in 1959. I am proud of that and want that in my obit.”

She detailed some of her duties in the same day surgery unit: admit the patients, answer the endless phone calls. Direct the doctor to the right family and do everything to make the waiting families comfortable.

“The waiting room was a balcony overlooking the lobby below,” she wrote. “There was a ledge and people would set a purse, coffee cup, or one time a laptop, which could injure someone below. I had to keep close watch.”

Though no monetary reward to it, the service carried deep significance for Stromberg.

“… This is a little long but I so loved being a very small part of the medical team for over 50 years,” she wrote. “Their gift, knowledge, companion, and dedication is outstanding.

“My pay was in the form of being helpful to people that day and waiting to return the next week.”

“What Would Winnie Do?”

With very few health complications as she aged, ultimately it had been Stromberg’s mobility that began slowing down. She had a fierce desire for independence through her final days, even driving until she was 97.

“She took care of her own decisions, she never had to check with anyone,” Stromberg-Batka said. “Independence—she completely defined independence.

“All she had to do was rely on herself and her common sense.”

That no-nonsense approach to life endeared her to many of Stromberg-Batka’s friends, who embraced the saying, “WWWD”—What Would Winnie Do?—when contemplating a decision.

“If you want a common-sense answer back, you think ‘what would Winnie do?'”

Facebook, her iPad and the connections she made through Facebook were her “lifelines” in her final years, Stromberg-Batka wrote. Winnie and Stromberg-Batka’s brother also wrote an informal “book,” where he would prompt her for life advice. Stromberg would offer a tidbit, followed by a life story, compiling memories of a life lived long and well.

Stromberg “had a wicked sense of humor, was super honest, very smart and a bonus parent to me,” Stromberg-Batka shared.

“She has some of the most beautiful and lovely friendships you could imagine. Many of these lovely friends (who were more like family) were so faithful to Winnie in the last days and surrounded her regularly at Silver Cross Hospital and Lightways Hospice! It was a beautiful sight to see!”

In the end, it was pulmonary issues that would lead to her death.

“It was truly old age,” she said. “it was just simple old age.”

Stromberg had been eager to reach the 100-year-old milestone.

“I would pretty much tell you she was living for that moment,” she said.

Stromberg-Batka cared for her father and mother until their deaths, and had seen in Winnie over the years an unmatched will to live. Stromberg had fallen ill two years prior to her death, and as her Power of Attorney, Stromberg-Batka’s remembers it clearly.

“Se was fighting like you wouldn’t believe,” she said. “There’s a real difference when you really want to live.”

There’s no bolded bullet point, necessarily, to her aunt’s long life, except maybe her strong desire to maintain her independence.

“She was still making her decisions until the bitter end,” she said. “Taking care of yourself, being responsible for your bills, your people, to your body … A little bit of everything.

“She didn’t do crazy diets or anything. She was just really reasonable. That was kind of the secret—that was the thing ’til the end.

“She was just a really great lady—they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.”

A Celebration of Life in honor of Winifred A. Stromberg will be held at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 412 E. Benton St., on Sunday, Jan. 14 at 11:30 a.m., with Rev. Rodney A. Juell officiating. Memorials to Bethlehem Lutheran Church will be appreciated. Visitation will be held on Sunday from 10:30 A.M. until the time of services. Services will be available for viewing on Bethlehem Lutheran Church Facebook Page.

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