LIDIA BONICA passed in eternity.

Lidia Bonica (born Abrudan), precious wife, mother, and grandmother, was born on  July 22nd 1933 in the village of Osand, Bihor, county of Romania, in a family of Neo-protestant Christians, with her father (Ioan Abrudan), minister and youth pastor of the Baptist church. Lidia grew up learning how to serve others in an exceptional way, especially during the Second World War. Her father, together with a group of co-workers at the Romanian railroad company, risked his life as he encountered enormous obstructions in freeing a train’s carload packed with Jewish prisoners headed to Auschwitz. After the war, Ioan Abrudan was an example for those around him for the way in which he worked in the Baptist church of Oradea. In the early 1960s, the Abrudan family joined the Pentecostal church of Oradea where they established the mixed choir, brass band, and other ministries for the youth. Lidia was a choir director, soloist in the church choir, reciter, a great cook, but also a talented seamstress. She participated in all of the activities at the local Pentecostal church of that time, keeping herself very close to the Baptist church and its youth with which she held a special attachment. Learning from her parents’ selflessness, Lidia was extremely generous and gracious to everyone, and showed love regardless of the religious denomination of the person in need.

She married Vasile Bonica on 4th of July 1964 and together they had three children: Steven, Liana and Mirela. In the summer of 1984, she immigrated with her husband and their children to the U.S., settling in the Detroit metropolitan area. After a year, the Bonica family moved in Orange County California where they lived for the next two years. In the fall of 1987 they moved to Chicago and became members of Bethany Romanian Pentecostal Church. Her life was blessed in 1987 with a third daughter (in-law, Simona) and later with her two grand-daughters: Stephanie and Rebecca.

Unfortunately, Lidia’s battle with diabetes and heart condition since 1982, have made her life more difficult each year. In 1988 she lost her sight completely in one eye, and in 1998 she had a quadruple by-pass open heart surgery. Her last two years have been extremely difficult, with the fast progressing Alzheimer’s condition, and lastly gangrene on her left leg.
On Sunday afternoon, the 31st of January 2010, around 4:25 PM, her body was tired of suffering, yet her soul, longing to sing praises to God, passed into eternity from her household where she was surrounded by her family that loved her, to be with the One whom she served her entire life. She left behind a weak body with a bright and peaceful face. Even though we realize in our minds that the passing in eternity of Lidia Bonica is for her own betterment, our souls are broken by the pain of separation.