Alice Gwozdz Kern

DUE TO PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS, ALL SERVICES WILL BE PRIVATE.

Alice Gwozdz Kern, 91, died peacefully in her sleep at a long-term nursing facility on January 7, 2021. Wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, she was the matriarch of a big family: two children, nine grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren with two more on the way. Feisty, funny, and fiercely loyal, Alice adored her family. And they adored her.
Born on June 11, 1929, Alice was a child of the Great Depression, the youngest of 11 siblings. A mischievous little girl, she remembered how, to her mother’s horror, she scraped tar off pavements because her parents couldn’t afford chewing gum, and how she played tug-of-war with her cousin across the Damen Avenue streetcar tracks.
A graduate of Wells High School, Alice went to work after graduation as a secretary in a North side insurance agency. One night, at a dance at the Aragon Ballroom, she met the man she would marry in 1951, Daniel Kern. Theirs was a lifelong love affair. Parted only by his death in 1994, they were always holding hands, sneaking kisses, putting up wallpaper, working in the yard, or dancing to Glenn Miller in the kitchen. She saw to it that he was always handsomely turned out in his natty Fedora and tailored suits. He saw to it that she wanted for nothing, she always perfectly coiffed and beautifully dressed.
A volunteer for decades at Resurrection Hospital, and a loyal parishioner of St. Tarcissus Church for half a century, Alice was as generous with her time as she was with gifts. She loved learning new things, teaching herself American Sign Language, the Greek alphabet, how to knit and crochet, how to read music and play the piano.
She never met a baby she couldn’t love, a cookie she wouldn’t eat, or napkins she didn’t demand more of.
Although she recovered from Covid in May, the cruelty of the pandemic meant Alice could not see her family for the last ten months, except through a window or on FaceTime. Her last words to all of us were: I love you.
Alice is survived by her children, Danice Kern (Ronald Bosack), Dan Kern (Joann); her grandchildren Jennifer Forte (Darrell Malamut), Tracy Hamlin (Richard), Joseph Kern (Celine Petersen), Brendan Bosack (Andrea), Geoffrey Tichenor (Stephanie Engelsman), Trevor Bosack (Courtney Ratliff), Alex Tichenor (Aileen Griffin), Myles Bosack (Stephanie), Douglas Tichenor (Audrey Huber); and her great-grandchildren Emmeline, Clare, Chase, Piper, Grayson, Sydney, Calliope, Ida, Molly, Noah, Sadie, Gemma, and two players to be named later in 2021.
She would want us to thank the many people who cared for her, especially over the last year, her many friends and neighbors, and the cousins and big, extended family whom she cherished.
At the family's request, Alice's services will be private due to the pandemic.