Beloved Downers Grove baker who 'tirelessly gave to others' succumbs to COVID-19
After years of delighting Downers Grove with his confections, baker Chuck Kalousek gave one last gift to the greater community.
The force behind Ingram's Busy Bee Bakery, who died last week after battling COVID-19 since March, donated his organs to the Gift of Hope Organization, his wife Katie Kalousek said.
"We're hoping that his special gifts will bring that hope that is so desperately needed to another family," Kalousek posted on the family's GoFundMe page.
"He was an incredible man that tirelessly and selflessly gave to others."
Kalousek, 55, was hit hard by the respiratory disease and was on a ventilator and a machine to assist with heart and lung functions, his wife said in May.
The family, which includes a daughter heading for high school and a son bound for college, had hoped he could be a candidate for a lung transplant.
"It is with very shattered broken hearts and much grief, that it is time to tell everyone, that my husband's three-month long struggle to survive has now ended," Katie Kalousek posted June 23.
"Our family is forever touched by the outpouring of incredible prayer and financial support for us, as we move through this horrific time. Thank you to each and everyone of you who has prayed with us and hoped for him to receive a new set of lungs.
"Although we're devastated, we're also very comforted knowing that my husband's skill and artistry brought so much joy to so many people, with all of the incredible baked goods he made for them," she stated.
The Busy Bee closed on St. Patrick's Day before Easter, which worried Kalousek because he knew residents would miss his traditional lamb cakes, Katie Kalousek said.
The bakery was proudly old-school, offering free sugar cookies to youngsters, impossibly tall "Atomic cakes," and irresistible strudels.
Outside the shop, customers and friends left multiple handwritten wishes, tributes and prayers on message boards.
The Kalouseks have owned the Busy Bee for 22 years and Chuck worked countless overnight hours to supply the town with paczkis in spring, pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving and birthday cakes for all ages, his wife said.
The Kalouseks also gave back to the Downers Grove community, donating goodies to Scouts, churches and the local FISH food pantry.
Kalousek learned to bake 36 years ago. "He was taught by old-time bakers and continues those traditions," Katie Kalousek said.
Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine and one of Kalousek's physicians, said in May that "COVID-19, unlike other infections such as influenza, has a unique 'attach and attack' mechanism using certain receptors on the lung tissue which are universally present even in young and healthy people."
Kalousek's father died when he was young. "It's always been in the back of my husband's mind that he never wanted his kids to lose their dad because he lost his dad when he was a sophomore in high school," his wife said.
Visitation is from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Robert J. Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home, 9000 W. 151st St., Orland Park. The funeral is at 10:15 a.m. Thursday at Sheehy & Sons with a Mass at 11 a.m. at St. Michael Church, 14327 Highland Ave, Orland Park.