Љубица Љотић Добриловић (многима познатија као „Тета Сека“) преминула је у четвртак, 10. јула 2025 године. Дијагноза рака јој је постављена у јануару 2024 године што је целу породицу шокирало и ожалостило. Тако је започела њена храбра једноипогодишња борба са болешћу.

Љубица је рођена 14. јуна 1929 године у Смедереву, у Југославији. Њени родитељи, Димитрије и Ивка Љотић, били су познати грађани Смедерева. Одрасла је са своја два старија брата, Владимиром и Николом, и са децом своје тетке Јелене Тодоровић – Миланом, Владимиром и Михајлом – као део шире породице Љотић-Тодоровић. До почетка другог светског рата је живела у Смедереву. Љубица је била 15 година када је њен отац Димитрије у априлу 1945 године трагично погинуо у саобраћајној несрећи у Словенији. Док се рат ближио крају Љубица и њена мајка са хиљадама избеглица преко Словеније напуштају своју домовину. Оне су провеле шест година у избегличким логорима у Италији И Немачкој, а пре него што су емигрирале у Америку. Љубица је била 21 годину када је стигла у Бостон 1950 године одакле су пријатељи њу и мајку усмерили у Чикаго. Ту су се настаниле и отпочеле живот од почетка, изгубивши све по напуштању Југославије. Живот у Чикагу је започела радећи у Харт, Шафнер и Маркс, шијући одећу као радница по комаду. У Чикагу је и упознала свог супруга, Данила Добриловића, члана покрета Збор који је основао њен отац Димитрије. Венчали су се 1958 године. Обоје су уз посао завршавали своје образовање да би издржавали породицу. Током осам година, Љубица је похађала разне универзитете, скупљајући кредите колико јој је посао дозвољавао. Дипломирала је хемију на Универзитету Рузвелт 1967 године.

Љубица је била запослена као хемичарка у лабораторијама Бакстер Травенол, где је више од 20 година радила у експерименталној хемијској лабораторији. Десетине година је посветила српској заједници и Српској православној цркви Светог Васкрсења у Чикагу. Њена страст према српском језику и култури била јој је веома важна. Љубица је била директорка српске школе “Свето Васкрсење“ више од 20 година, учећи српску децу рођену у Америци да читају и пишу на српском језику. Такође је годинама била укључена у недељну школу и у Коло Српских Сестара.

Након изненадне и преране смрти свог супруга Данила 1986 године постаје матријарх породица Добриловић, Љотић и Тодоровић, инсистирајући на одржавању породичних веза, српских православних верских традиција и вредности, као и на познавању српске историје и обичаја. За већину православних празничних прослава сакупљала је породицу око богате трпезе у свом дому. “Тетина кухиња” ће увек остати у сећању њених најближих као посебан доживљај. Славу Светог Јована је планирала недељама унапред спремајући разноврсниа јела и колаче у којима би многобројни гости уживали. Често је у ове прославе укључивала “сирочад“ која су се налазила у цркви када нису имали где другде да оду за празник. Њена великодушност је била огромна, увек се старајући да људи буду укључени, да добију поклон за Божић или да им се ода признање када је то заслужено.
Иако је њено тело попуштало, Божјом милошћу, ум јој је остао оштар, памћење нетакнуто, а дух јак. До свог последњег дана, делила је своју бескрајну љубав и мудрост са свима нама. Она је једна од последњих у великој и историјској генерацији. Вечнаја Памјат.

Иза ње су остали син Стеван (Милка) и унуци Данило, Марија и Наталија, као и чланови породица Љотић, Емерсон и Тодоровић.

Родбина и пријатељи опростили су се од покојне Љубице у четвртак, 17. јула 2025. године, од шест сати после подне до 7 сати после подне у Српској Православној Саборној Цркви Светог Васкрсења Христовог, 5701 N Redwood Drive, Chicago, IL 60631.

Мали Помен обављен је у 7 сати после подне у Српској Православној Саборној Цркви Светог Васкрсења Христовог.

Опело покојне Љубице обављено је у петак, 18. јула 2025. године, у 10 сати пре подне у Српској Православној Саборној Цркви Светог Васкрсења Христовог.

После Опела обављена је сахрана на гробљу манастира Светог Саве, 32377 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Libertyville, IL 60048. 

Уместо цвећа, донације се могу уплатити Српској православној катедрали Holy Resurrection, Endowment Fund Danilo Dobrilović, 5701 N. Redwood Drive, Chicago, Illinois 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.