Vernabelle (Sickler) Fleck
Vernabelle (Sickler) Fleck, 94, died March 21, 2022. Visitation will begin at 3 p.m. April 22 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 3201 Meadow Dr., Rolling Meadows. A service will begin at 4 p.m., followed by a light meal. A family only burial will take place the next day at the Arlington Cemetery in Elmhurst, Ill.
She and her twin sister Isabelle were born July 27, 1927, to Reynolds and Edna (Hanke) Sickler.
They attended elementary school in a one room schoolhouse near Wittenberg, Wisc. To attend high school, Vern took a job at the town’s dairy. In exchange for room and board, she washed milk bottles, performed domestic chores, babysat the owner’s children and in 1945, she graduated from Wittenberg high school.
Vern and Izzy passed a civil service exam and landed jobs in the War Bond Department at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. They traveled to the city by train and arrived wearing matching green suits with blue trench coats. The building held 1,600 employees, double the size of their hometown.
Soon she met Harold, a young man fresh out of the service, with shiny black hair and a ‘real good car.’ A typical date was a picnic in a forest preserve, or, if Harold was feeling flush, they might stop and buy lunch.
On April 5, 1947, they married. Their union lasted 72 years and produced five children. Harold passed March 15, 2019.
In 1957, they bought one of the first houses in Rolling Meadows, Ill. Soon after, they joined the Trinity Lutheran Church and Vern became an altar lady.
Vern loved to cook and the Fleck household was always the center of holiday gatherings for relatives, neighbors, friends and even an occasional sailor looking for a home cooked meal. “What’s one more?” she often said and set another place at the table.
Always practical, at the age of 92, she orchestrated the sale of her home of 73 years and joined the senior retirement community at Church Creek in Arlington Heights, Ill.
She is survived by her children, Bruce (Sheila), Bradley (Marilyn), Brian (Sabra), Robert (Jan) Fleck and the late Bonnie (William) Mayers; six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; her brothers, Gordon and Larry and sister Isabelle.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church.