Dominick's customers remember longtime cashier

For more than 40 years, Helen Marino was a fixture in the checkout lines at the Dominick's Finer Foods store in Rolling Meadows.

A no-nonsense cashier, who was all business while she scanned groceries at her register, she was a favorite among her co-workers and a symbol of the store's longtime presence in the community.

“She was an icon,” says Janice Berebitsky, a co-worker in the Rolling Meadows and Palatine stores.

Mrs. Marino worked at the Rolling Meadows store until she was 88, before accepting a transfer to the Palatine store, where she retired nearly four years ago, at 90.

Mrs. Marino passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 94, and her many co-workers, now spread out across stores throughout the Northwest suburbs, as well as her many customers, are mourning.

“She was feisty,” Berebitsky said. “I'd go in her line, just to get hollered at.

“Seriously, everyone loved her. They loved talking to her.”

Officials at Dominick's corporate offices in Oak Brook confirmed that Mrs. Marino was one of their oldest employees to retire.

“We're celebrating 85 years as a company and many of our employees have grown up with us,” says Wynona Redmond, Dominick's public affairs director. “They've raised their families with us and met their spouses while working for us.

“It's not that uncommon,” Redmond adds, “for employees to be with us 50 years or more. We're really fortunate to have employees like that, like Helen Marino.”

Mrs. Marino had raised her family of four children in Rolling Meadows, and lived within a mile of the former store on Kirchoff Road. She began working there in her mid-40s, and routinely walked to and from her job.

She continued that ritual for the next 40 years, even into her 80s. Ultimately, she worked for Dominick's for 45 years.

Both her job as a cashier, and her daily walks, co-workers said, helped keep her young and vital.

“For a while there, she needed her job for the benefits, because her husband was so ill,” Berebitsky says. “But when he passed, she wanted to keep working just to remain active. It kept her going.”

Berebitsky says Mrs. Marino's passing seemed to knock the wind out of everyone's sails, once they heard the news. It was as if her feisty and determined nature would keep her going forever, they said.

“We're all so sad,” Berebitsky says.

Mrs. Marino was preceded in death by her husband, Jacob, and daughter, Helen. She is survived by her children Jacob “Jay” (Alicia), Rose, and Anne; as well as six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.

Visitation will take place from 3-8 p.m. on Sunday at the Rolling Meadows Funeral Home, 3615 Kirchoff Road, before a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at St. Colette Catholic Church, 3900 Meadow Drive, both in Rolling Meadows.