Judith A. Hobolich

Lifelong Sheboyganite and prolific craftswoman, Judy Hobolich passed away peacefully on December 24^th, 2023 at the age of 78 from natural causes, surrounded by family. Judy leaves behind a legacy of intricately stitched yarn, each slipknot and chain looped together with love, keeping warm her generations to follow.

Born to Raymond and Meta Schram on August 1^st 1945, Judy was a proud graduate of Sheboygan South High’s class of 1964. Judy was preceded in death by her parents and the love of her life, Kenneth Hololich. Judy is survived by her four children, Lisa Sackett (John), Donald Reetz, Laura Engstrom (Dale), David Reetz, ten grandchildren, and 16 great grandchildren.

A private visitation will be held at Ballhorn Chapels on December 26^th and funeral services at Immaculate Conception Cemetery on December 29^th.  

Crochet by Jan Mordenski

Even after darkness closed her eyes

my mother could crochet.

Her hands would walk the rows of wool

turning, bending, to a woolen music.

The dye lots were registered in memory:

appleskin, chocolate, porcelain pan,

the stitches remembered like faded rhymes:

pineapple, sunflower, window pane, shell.

Tied to our lives those past years

by merely a soft colored yarn,

she’d sit for hours, her dark lips

moving as if reciting prayers,

coaching the sighted hands.