Irmi Ullrich Obituary

Ullrich, Irmi (Irmgard) Born November 24, 1934 in Tuttlingen, Germany, passed peacefully on Christmas Day after a brief illness. Mom was raised in Germany during WWII and, in a moment that only fate could have arranged, met Dad during his tour of duty. They married and moved to Mount Prospect in 1956. Dad was newly hired at Van Driels Drug Store and Mom took on part time work there to improve her English. After raising their four children, she returned to work at Van Driels - now Medical Supply - and took on the compression stocking part of the business. She loved her new job and it became not only her career, but also her ministry. Every one of her patients were treated with her unique combination of unparalleled expertise, tender loving care and teutonic attention to detail. Her customers adored her. Mom was getting rave Yelp reviews well into her 80's - which pleased her, despite not knowing exactly what that meant. Mom was a magical combination of charming and tough, classy and sassy, generous and frugal, and she found so much joy in life's smallest details. She was famous for her unfailing kindness and grace, her unique version of German potato salad (battles were waged for the last few bites), her refusal to pronounce the 'J' in her Jetta (because no proper German would), her love of taking side streets to any given point (those little streets need some traffic too), her dedication to food pantries (because as a child she had known what it was like to go hungry) and her lifelong love of meeting new people. As kids we got used to coming home fromschool to find mom having coffee with the recent immigrant she met at the bank last week, the down on his luck guy she bought a used car from, the university professor she had met on a plane or a homesick Irish priest who was new in the parish. All were initially strangers to us, but to Mom they were special souls. Irmi was preceded in death by her husband Max Ullrich, her parents Rudolf Dieringer and Antonie Dieringer as well as her brother Rudolf Dieringer. She is survived by all the people whose lives she touched, especially; her sisters Marlies Acker and Antonia Dieringer; her children, Claudia Boyle, Christopher (Debbie) Ullrich, Andrea Ullrich and Alexander (Vanessa Mesia) Ullrich; her grandchildren, Amanda (Mark) Hauser, Elyse Boyle, Thomas Boyle, Ryan Ullrich, Jacob Ullrich, Maggie Ullrich, Katie Ullrich and Benjamin Mesia Ullrich; and her great-grandchildren, Addison and Emerson Hauser. Visitation Monday, December 30th, 3:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. at Friedrichs Funeral Home, 320 W. Central Rd., at Northwest Highway, Mount Prospect. Visitation Tuesday, December 31st, 9:00 a.m. until Funeral Mass 10:00 a.m. at St. Raymond de Penafort Church, Elmhurst Rd. (Rt. 83) at Lincoln St., Mt. Prospect. Interment All Saints Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in Irmi's name may be made to The Epilepsy Foundation, Angel Wings Foundation (angelwingsfoundation.net), Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, or Doctors Without Borders.