Ljubica Ljotic Dobrilovic (better known to many as “Teta Seka”) passed away on Thursday July 10, 2025. She was diagnosed with cancer in January 2024, which  shocked saddened us all. So began her 1.5-year brave battle with the disease..

Ljubica was born on June 14, 1929 in Smederevo, Yugoslavia. Her parents, Dimitrije and Ivka Ljotic were well known citizens of Smederevo. She grew up with her two older brothers, Vladimir and Nikola, and with the children of her aunt Jelena Todorovic – Milan, Vladimir and Mihajlo – as part of the Ljotic-Todorovic extended family. She spent her early teenage years in Smederevo leading up to the start of WWII. In April 1945, at the age of 15, her father Dimitrije died in a tragic automobile accident in Slovenija, leaving Ljubica and her mother, along with thousands of her fellow refugees, to flee their homeland as WWII neared its end. They spent six years in refugee camps in Italy and Germany  before emigrating to the United States, reaching Boston in 1950 when Ljubica was 21 years old. Upon arrival in Boston, friends directed Ljubica and her mother to Chicago, where they settled and built a life from scratch, having lost everything when they escaped Yugoslavia. She started her life in the United States by working at Hart, Schafner, and Marx sewing clothes as a pieceworker. She met her husband, Danilo Dobrilovic, a member of the Zbor movement that her father Dimitrije founded, and was married in 1958. They both struggled to complete their education while working to support the family. Over a period of eight years, Ljubica went to various universities accumulating credits as her work schedule permitted and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Roosevelt University in 1967.

Ljubica was employed as a Chemist at Baxter Travenol Laboratories conducting chemical experiments in the lab for over 20 years. For decades Ljubica devoted herself to the Serbian community and to Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago. Her passion for the Serbian language and culture was very important to her. Ljubica served as the Principal of the Holy Resurrection Serbian School for over 20 years, teaching Serbian children born in the United States to read and write in Serbian. She was also involved in Sunday School and Kolo of Serbian Sisters for many years.

After the sudden and early death of her husband Danilo in 1986, as the matriarch of the Dobrilovic, Ljotic, and Todorovich families, she insisted on the maintenance of family ties, Serbian Orthodox religious traditions and values, and knowledge of Serbian history and custom. She hosted most Orthodox holiday celebrations for the family in her home, cooking elaborate meals. The extravagant meals were affectionally referred to as "Teta's Kitchen" by the family. She prepared Slava for weeks in advance, working to make a variety of dishes and desserts for large crowds that would come to her home on Sveti Jovan. She often included “orphans” found in church in these celebrations when they had nowhere else to go for the holiday. Her generosity was immense, always making sure that people were included, received a gift at Christmas, or given recognition when it was deserved.

Although her body was failing, with the grace of God, her mind remained sharp, her memory intact, and her spirit stayed strong. Up to her very last day, she was sharing her unconditional love and wisdom to all of us. She was one of the very last of a great and historical generation. May her memory be eternal.

She is survived by her son Stevan (Milka) and grandchildren Danilo, Maria, and Natalia, and members of the Ljotic, Emerson, and Todorovich families.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, July 17, 2025 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 5701 N Redwood Drive, Chicago, IL 60631.

Mali Pomen (Serbian Orthodox Wake Service) 7 p.m. at the Cathedral.

Visitation will also be held on Friday, July 18, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral.

Opelo (Serbian Orthodox Funeral Services) will begin at the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on Friday, July 18, 2025 at 10:00 a.m., followed by interment at the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery, 32377 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Libertyville, IL 60048.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Danilo Dobrilovic Endowment Fund, 5701 N. Redwood Drive, Chicago, IL 60631.

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Eulogy given by Stevan Dobrilović on Thursday July 17, 2025 at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois:

I would like to start by thanking all of my mother’s friends and the priests who visited her over the last year while she was battling her cancer. You inspired her to continue fighting and to continue to live life on her terms. Also, I want to especiallythank my cousin Ivanka for her daily visits to my mother’s home and the hospital. It comforted my mother greatly and gave me the opportunity to continue to work knowing that another family member was there for my mother in her time of need.

My mother, Ljubica Ljotic Dobrilovic, was a determined, resilient, and principled woman. She was demanding and strict, but she was also loving and cared deeply for the Serbian people. She was the proud matriarch of the Dobrilovic, Ljotic, and Todorovic extended family. She loved her family fiercely, and exhibited a persistent resolve to protect and unite her family. She possessed a deep faith in God, a respect for Serbian Orthodox religious beliefs, and apassion for Serbian history, culture and customs. These traitsformed who my mother was as a person and her history is instrumental in understanding how she became the person that the people attending this funeral service knew and loved.

Ljubica was born in Smederevo in 1929 to parents Dimitrije & Ivka Ljotic. Dimitrije was a well-known lawyer in Smederevo and controversial national political figure. He was a determined idealist with a strong belief in a benevolent Serbian monarchy. He cared deeply for the Serbian people and worked diligently through turbulent times to protect Serbs from the Nazi’s and other foes. He was deeply religious and stressed Serbian Orthodox dogma to his family and followers. My mother witnessed these traits as Dimitrije formed and led the Zbor movement, inspiring Serbian youth to adopt a new vision for the country. She also saw her father negotiate with the Nazi’s to stop the killing of 100 Serbs for each Nazi soldier killed in Yugoslavia, despite being called a Nazi sympathizer.

My mother’s family life was dominated by her two brothers, Vladimir and Nikola and the children of her aunt Jelena Todorovic (Dimitrije’s sister) – Milan, Vladimir, and Mihaijlo. She was the only girl among all the boys, most who were older than her. To be noticed in this crowd of rambunctious boys required her to be assertive and self-confident, something that was hard to do in the male oriented environment prevalent in Serbian culture. She mastered these traits quickly and demonstrated them time and again throughout her life.

Ljubica’s mother, my Baka Ivka, was Croatian and was not always accepted by the Ljotic family. She was resilient and determined, even stubborn by some accounts, which was a necessity required to survive in the dynamic Ljotic family that was filled with lawyers, diplomats, artists, and otherintellectuals. Ivka always stood her ground when some Ljotic family members tested her. In fact, she converted to Serbian Orthodoxy not in Yugoslavia under pressure from the family, frustrated that the Catholic priest in Chicago did not believe she was a Catholic when she tried to receive communion. Ljubica spent her entire life watching her mother navigate endless challenges and come out of each stronger and more resolute.

These anecdotes demonstrate the lessons my mother Ljubica learned growing up and how they shaped her character. She observed her family’s behavior in trying times and internalized those lessons. She noticed that integrity, strong character, and Orthodox Christian values are necessary to keep on a righteous path. She strived every day of her life to live by these traits and was blessed by God with an immensely rewarding and long life, in spite of the many difficulties she endured along her path.

After fleeing Yugoslavia and spending six years in refugee camps, Ljubica and her mother Ivka arrived in Boston on June 19, 1950, only 5 days after she turned 21 on the transport ship. Alone with her mother in Chicago, she immediately demonstrated the character traits she learned as a child, working to support her mother who spoke no English. After marriage to her husband Danilo in 1958, she continued working and going to school while Danilo completed his Master’s Degree. She struggled for 8 years, attending various universities while working full time, to accumulate credits to complete her Chemistry degree. Ljubica was determined to complete her education, establish her family, and create a better life for her young son using the traits she learned from her family and during her journey to the United States. I want to share a few more anecdotes to illustrate some other character traits that my mother learned from her family and demonstrated during her life:
My mother was idealistic. She spent 50 years in the United States as a stateless person before becoming a US Citizen. She always dreamed of and was determined to return to Yugoslavia, the country she was proud of and loved. My father and I would often tease her that by the time she returned to Yugoslavia, the country would not exist. This teasing became a fact in 2006 when Montenegro declared itself an independent country and split from Serbia, ending the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. My mother only became a US Citizen because it was so difficult for her to obtain visas required to visit Millie and me when we lived in Moldova in 1998. After we moved to Ukraine in 2001, my mother swore that her next visit to Kyiv in 2003 would be easier – she would become a US Citizen rather than deal with the bureaucracy of European countries to get the required visas for her next visit. It took her 50+ years to move on from her idealistic dream that she would return to live in Yugoslavia.

My mother had deep faith in Christ and respect for the Serbian Orthodox Church. She regularly took communion and attended liturgy weekly. She knew the dates of all religious holidays, explaining their significance to the family. She lived her life according to the church’s teachings, exhibiting love and compassion for all around her. She demonstrated her faith through service to others, always inviting people into her home, teaching children, and being involved in the church community. With an unwavering commitment and a fierce determination, she completed pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to the Orthodox religious sites in Russia (she went to the holy sites near Moscow and St.Petersburg on a tour with Metropolitan Longin).

Serbian language and history were of paramount importance to my mother. In the mid 1970’s she revived the Holy Resurrection Cathedral’s Serbian school from the dead. Wanting her son to read and write in Serbian and to know about our Serbian culture, she recruited her friends and relatives, including my father Danilo and my uncle Nikola, as well as other professionals in the Serbian community to become Serbian school teachers. She advocated for parents to bring their children, especially those born in the United States, to Serbian school each Sunday. She endlessly created lesson plans and photocopied books to prepare the resources necessary to teach students about our language and history.

Soon, Serbian school thrived, with attendance increasing to large numbers – many of you in this church were students in her class. She continued teaching for decades, long after I had graduated from Serbian school. Even today, I hear from her former students telling me about the impact my mother made in their lives as a teacher. The other day, as I cleaned out a cabinet in my mother’s house, I found about 20 Serbian grammar books that she used to create her lesson plans. Over 25 years after she stopped teaching, she still kept those books in hopes that she could teach children Serbian again.
I could share many more examples that reflect my mother’s traits and values. But, as I reflect on my mother’s life, I am confident that she made a significant contribution to the Serbian community and to the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Chicago. She leaves this world knowing that the people around her are better for her presence in their lives. She gave all of herself to her community, its children, and her own family. Everyone should aspire to lead a life as fulfilling and rewarding.

Mama, I love you and will miss you.

Vjecna njoj Pamjat.