Gloria S. (Hayna) Brandes

Gloria Sue Brandes, 80, passed away peacefully on Good Friday, April 7, 2023, after a nine-month fight with lung cancer.

Gloria loved spending time with her siblings, cousins, friends, two sons and nine grandchildren. She made fast friends with anyone who crossed her path and will be remembered as the heart of her extended family, as she planned and hosted large reunions for her many aunts, uncles and cousins at her longtime lake home.

Gloria was born March 6, 1943, in Chicago to Charles and Wanda Hayna as the first of three children. She attended Maine East High School in Park Ridge and became a registered nurse after graduating from Katherine Shaw Bethea (KSB) nursing school in Dixon, IL. She brought thousands of babies into the world during her 40 years working as a labor and delivery nurse at Victory Memorial Hospital in Waukegan.

Gloria was preceded in death by her parents; brother John (Elizabeth) Hayna; brother-in-law Dan Koby; first husband Jaan Aabram in 1983; and her second husband James Brandes in 2020.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Michael and Kathleen Aabram and their children Virginia, Joseph, Patrick, John, Mary and Anne; her son David Aabram and his children Hanna, Fletcher and Autumn; sister Pamela Koby; nieces Danielle (Daniel) Rucci and Stephanie Koby; nephews Justin (Holly) Hayna and Spencer (Kat) Hayna; and great nephews and nieces Connor, Luke, Max, Gabriella, Violet and Eloise.

Her funeral service will be Saturday, April 15, at the Lutheran Church of the Atonement, 909 E. Main Street, Barrington, IL, 60010. Visitation will be at 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. and a funeral service at 11:00 a.m., followed by a private burial at Evergreen Cemetery Association, 610 S. Dundee Avenue, Barrington, IL, 60010.

Make donations in Gloria’s memory to the Children’s Heart Foundation, which is dedicated to funding research on congenital heart defects, at www.childrensheartfoundation.org.