Helen Marie Szyper (née Sheehan) passed away Thursday, March 20, 2025 after a short illness.
Helen, or simply Mom to her family, was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend.
Helen was born on June 1, 1941 in Chicago to Lorretta and Bill Sheehan. She spent her childhood on the city’s south side seeing every movie that came out at the theater with her big sister Lorretta and eventually attending Lourdes High School. It was through her friends at Lourdes that Helen met the love of her life.
At a party with friends on New Year’s Eve 1958, Helen was asked to dance by Stan Szyper, a boy from De La Salle High School. After a surprise midnight kiss, she would later joke she told her friends she thought he might be worth keeping for a prom date. Things ended up lasting a little longer. Stanley and Helen were married on June 10, 1961 and were inseparable for over 63 years,
serving as an example to their family of what true love and partnership look like. Stan and Helen were more than just husband and wife, they were best friends, the kind of couple whose love showed clearly at all times. Even when they made each other mad, they were always mad about each other. Together they welcomed three daughters Terry, Linda, and Paula, and later two grandchildren Jessie and Joey.
While supporting their family, Helen and Stan served as founding members of Incarnation Parish in Crestwood, where Terry, Linda, Paula, Jessie, and Joey would all later attend grade school. Over the years Helen served as the co-founder of Incarnation’s Mothers Club, a Blue Bird troop leader, a room mother, a volunteer for school projects and events of all sorts, and as a top fan watching cheerleading, basketball games, and school plays. Helen lived her life for her family. Whatever was going on in her kids’ and grandkids’ lives, from academics, to careers, to romance she wanted to be there, supporting us all through thick and thin. There was nothing Helen wouldn’t do for the people she loved. From playing matchmaker for her sister and a friend who would go on to share a life together, to hosting countless holidays and parties, to planning weddings, to sitting in hospital waiting rooms, to simply calling to check in and say “I love you” it was all in a day’s work for Mom. She was a kind, generous soul and was always there with a hot meal, a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, and an occasional well-placed curse word when life went wrong or a smile and a celebratory hug when it went right. Everyone who knew Helen knew they could count on her. Her smile, laughter, wisdom, and wit brought joy to all those around her and were a definitive part of all our lives. Helen, our mom, was the heart of our family, not a day passed that she did not make it known how much she loved us. Words cannot describe how much she was loved or how much she will be missed, but her kindness and her love will live on always in our memories and in our hearts.
Helen is survived by her loving husband Stanley Szyper, her daughters Terry, Linda, and Paula Szyper, her grandchildren Jessie and Joey Molloy, her sons-in-law Jim Pikula and Paul Edick, her sister Loretta Hield, Loretta’s children Laura Lynch, Christopher Hield, and Patrick Hield, their spouses and children, and multiple cousins. She is preceded in death by her parents Loretta and Bill Sheehan, her son-in-law John Molloy, and her brother-in-law Edgar Hield.
Memorial Services are pending at this time. Arrangements entrusted to the BECVAR & SON FUNERAL HOME, 5539 W. 127th Street, Crestwood. For more info: (708) 824-9000 or www.becvarfuneralhome.com
