Bogumila Kachetiene

Bogumila Kachetiene, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, passed away peacefully on the morning of December 5, 2025.

Visitation will be held at Palos-Gaidas Funeral Home (11028 SW Hwy, Palos Hills, IL 60465) on Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 3:00-8:00 PM. For those attending the visitation, we invite guests to wear blue or an accent of blue in remembrance of Bogumila. Blue was her favorite color. In lieu of flowers, we invite you to honor Bogumila's memory through any act of generosity that best expresses your love for her.

Family and friends will gather at Sacred Heart Church (8245 W 111th St, Palos Hills, IL 60465) for an 11:00 AM mass on Friday December 12, 2025.

Remembering the Life of Bogumila Kachetiene

Bogumila was born in 1946 in the small village of Nadzeja, Lithuania, and grew up in a large, close-knit Polish family with two brothers and five sisters. She learned early what it meant to work hard and look after others. While her parents and older siblings worked and studied, she helped raise the younger girls and spent countless hours tending to the family farm. Her sisters remember her as athletic, lively, and fiercely caring. She was a devoted helper with a skier’s stamina and a warm, steady spirit. Her generosity had no conditions.

From a young age, she had a talent for sewing. She made clothes for her entire family, often buying fabric with her own money. Sewing became one of the small but meaningful ways she provided for her family. She even sewed her own wedding dress. Decades later, she continued to use her skills tailoring clothes for her grandchildren. Both of her grandchildren’s favorite pillows are ones she had stitched by hand.

Although she dreamed of becoming a nurse, she began working right after high school to support her family. She worked at a water-quality laboratory where she met her future husband. In 1968, she married Vytautas Kacheta, and together they raised two children, Jolana and Miroslavas. She taught them the essentials of life: how to cook, how to be resourceful, and above all, how to put family first. In 1992, she followed her daughter to the United States, beginning a new chapter grounded in the same grit and devotion she had always shown.

In America, she became a grandmother to Aleksas and Ingrida, who saw her not only as their grandmother but as a central maternal figure. She helped raise them with the same mix of warmth, structure, humor, and resolve that defined her entire life. They cherish memories of staying up late with her before the holidays, cooking together until the house was filled with warmth and laughter—especially at Christmas, her favorite time of year.

She worked many demanding jobs after immigrating, demonstrating the same determination that had shaped her youth. She was loved in every workplace and was quick to make friends. She often held two jobs, never complained about her circumstances, and carried herself with a quiet resilience. Her community saw in her a welcoming presence, a certain stubborn charm, and the unmistakable strength of someone shaped by difficult times but never hardened by them. She was resourceful in ways both practical and endearing—whether hauling a rug across town by bus or finding joy in even the simplest celebrations. She loved a good party and kept her dry wit and playful sass well into her later years.

In old age, she continued her devotion to caring for others. She stayed close with her siblings throughout the decades, especially her sister Stacia, with whom she shared countless phone calls across continents.

She was devout in her Polish Catholic faith and carried it with her throughout her life. Her home was filled with the religious symbols and imagery that anchored her spiritually. Her faith was personal and deeply felt.

Her love was practical, unwavering, and expressed through her actions: food cooked, children raised, family supported, traditions kept alive. She leaves behind generations who learned from her strength, her humor, and her remarkable ability to endure and to love. She will be deeply missed and forever remembered.

May her memory be a blessing.