Helen C. Wilk (née Kazala), age 96, of Brick, NJ, died peacefully on March 23, 2025, at Ocean University Medical Center surrounded by her family. Born and raised in Newark, NJ, where she also met and married her late husband, they raised their family in Maplewood, then moved to East Hanover and Wall, eventually settling in Brick. She graduated from St. Stanislaus grammar school as valedictorian and attended Central High School. Helen was a homemaker and assisted her husband in his entrepreneurial ventures.
She was very active in her community, church, and children’s schools, including serving as den mother to a local scout troop, in the Rosary Society at St. Joseph’s Church in Maplewood, participating in school fairs (always manning the baked goods table!), and sang in the women’s community chorus.
Helen is predeceased by her husband Stanley E. Wilk. She is survived by her daughter Barbara Bastian and husband Barry Bastian, daughter Donna Cardillo and husband Joseph Cardillo, and son Edward S. Wilk and his former wife Nancy Viola. She is also survived by grandchildren Pamela Molochko and husband Paul Langdon, Mimi Holloway and husband Austin Holloway, Andrew Wilk, Matthew Wilk and fiancé Carly Sinnott, Anna Bastian and her fiancé Chris Berens, David Cardillo and wife Justyna Cardillo, Pia Cardillo, and great grandchildren Lily, Max, Jasper, Sebastian, and Junior, plus many beloved nieces and nephews.
Helen was a mother to the world: to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She was also a mother figure to so many of our friends and classmates who no longer had a mother, had a sick mother, or didn’t have a good relationship with their own mother.
She was a cooking and baking fanatic, spending hours each week combing through her large collection of cookbooks and recipe cards for new dishes to make and ways to vary old favorites. She was very proud of her Polish heritage and loved making standards such as pierogis, mushroom soup, stuffed cabbage, kapusta, kruschicki, and babka.
Helen loved to sing and play the piano. She was a great writer and won at least one writing contest in her youth. She was also a skilled orator and gave speeches during her school years, once as valedictorian, and was chosen to play King Herod in a school play. She loved a good joke and had a great sense of humor and a hearty laugh. Her smile would light up a room. She continued to play bocce and Rummikub, bowl in a league, and walk on most days into her 90’s.
She wrote letters and notes to friends, family, and acquaintances and had the most beautiful handwriting learned from Catholic nuns in her Polish grammar school. Each birthday, she received so many greeting cards, at least 15-20 of them, a true testament to all the people who loved and remembered her annually. She was the conduit that kept her extended family and her husband’s extended family connected to one another expanding around the globe.
The world has lost a great lady, but she leaves behind a legacy of friendship, family, food, and fun.
Family and friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 am at St. Martha Church, Point Pleasant on Friday April 25, 2025. Interment will be at a later date at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery. Wrightstown, NJ. To send condolences to the family please visit www.orenderfamilyhome.net.
